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While BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales tries to give other parents the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their child-rearing approaches, there’s one style she cannot overlook: digital parenting.
“I just have a big problem with this generation of parents that are farming their parenting out to screens,” she says. “They’re essentially letting screens raise their children.”
While there is a movement within the parenting world to reduce — and even eliminate screens — in their children’s lives, iPad kids are still a big issue.
On this episode of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” Sara speaks with three-time Billboard country artist, host of “Backwoods Wisdom,” and author of “Ain’t No Wi-Fi in the Woods” Buddy Brown, who has become a vocal advocate for screen-limited, nature-immersed childhoods.
Brown says that he was inspired to write his new book because so much of children’s literature today is “trash.” That’s why “Ain’t No Wi-Fi in the Woods” is deliberately wholesome and nostalgic.
“It’s the illustrator from ‘Winnie-the-Pooh.’ I mean, we went all the way, and it really came together great,” he says.
Sara shares Brown’s enthusiasm for resisting the digitization of parenting.
“We go out to a restaurant … and I look around, and everyone’s on the iPhones and on the iPads, and it makes me sad. It makes my heart sad for this generation of children who don’t understand the human connection like some of the kids who do not just live on screens,” she says.
Brown agrees, stressing the importance of parents being “intentional.”
“One of the things that we made our kids do from the time they were about 4 years old, which is very early, but we made them look at the waiter and order … and what that did was it just gave them that ability to not be afraid of adults, to make eye contact, which so few kids do now,” he shares.
Sara notes that so many older children, even teenagers, seem unable to communicate outside of their devices.
“All they’re doing is scrolling, and they’re typing stuff to their friends … and they’re not actually getting real human companionship. And I just worry what that does not just to their brains but just to their psyche in general,” she laments.
Brown concurs and adds another concern to the list: their futures. One day these screen-addicted kids will grow up and need the social skills necessary to thrive in the real world but will find that they simply don’t have them.
Parents who resist the urge to placate their children with screens will reap the benefits later, he encourages. “Fast-forward 15, 20 years, [your kids] are going to be standouts in whatever they’re doing. … They’re going to thank you later on.”
To hear more of the conversation and get the inside scoop on Brown’s new book — including the wilderness guide it features — watch the video above.
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