How many devices are your kids tethered to and what do those devices cost? Not just in terms of dollars, but also in terms of loss of creativity, loss of your peace of mind, etc.
Michelle Singletary, who always seems pretty level-headed in her advice had a great column in the Washington Post that covers the topic nicely.
Do kids really need all of these gadgets? Mine don’t, although they do have some of the ones that she mentions. She’s spot-on with her points on how expensive these “toys” will cost in the long run. It’s not the cost of initially getting the cell phone or the came console, it’s the monthly charges and the stream of games that need to be bought over the years that really adds up.
“If parents just saved that money, the cash they spend on monthly cellphone charges would add up to thousands of dollars by the time their children go to college. “
True. And I like the part where she talks about parents who can say no, work less and spend more quality time with the kids as well. If you’re going to spend $250-$400 on a gaming console, that’s about 1-3 extra days you going to have to work. And you’ll probably end up buying at least 10 games this year at $40-50 a pop.
When my son wanted a Wii, I told him he could sell off his old games on eBay… We sold a few and got $10-20 a pop… So then he shows up with a big bag of games from his old system and sold about 15 more. He sold them at a fraction of the original puchase price, but he earned enough to buy his Wii and felt good about doing it on his own.
Hint… If you want to get games at a good price, try looking on eBay, there is a glut of them there. Try to get your kids and their friends to trade games too.
My daughter wants a laptop. That’s her big thing. But she doesn’t need one. She says it will help her in school. I say, “No, it’s going to be a big distraction. You have a desktop that you can use at home and get you work done on that.” And a CMU study agrees with me that Laptops Isolate Students and Don’t Improve Performance.
What’s it going to cost? The initial outlay for the hardware, but it doesn’t end there. There is the cost for software, the time it will take to install and maintain the system, office software, firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, internet filter/monitoring. All of that installation, maintenance, and ugh… if something goes wrong. Suddenly I’m out a lot of my free time and I’m dealing with aggravation because I’m the “Geek On The Go” in my house. How about the costs in terms of stressful arguments with the kids; a portable computer is going to end up being used in places you don’t want it being used, like in a bedroom, out of site of the parents. Late at night after we’ve gone to bed. Now she’ll want to take it to Grandma’s house when she goes to visit.
No way. This is getting too expensive for me. Just say no.
Posted: November 10th, 2007 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1
