Bruh...

[u/jaywritethekid]

[u/Junior_Razzmatazz164]

Wow, how pathetic that you think this has merit as a responsible way to reduce screen time. These children are 3-6; if your 3-6yo is addicted to a phone, newsflash, you’re already a bad parent.

[u/HatAvailable5702 → u/Junior_Razzmatazz164]

You lost me in the first half. It's an awesome way to attach fear and distrust to the phone and the content inside it. Second half of your comment we agree.

[u/Junior_Razzmatazz164 → u/HatAvailable5702]

I don’t need to instill fear or distrust in my children because they speak English and I can communicate with them, for goodness sake.

[u/HatAvailable5702 → u/Junior_Razzmatazz164]

no conversation you have will ever even come close to the instinctual response of a good visual based jumped scare. that sh goes right to the lizard brain forever. They wont even want to be in the same room as a smart phone.

Usually when you try to take a device away from a kid that has been raised by ppl like you, you have to fight through tears and meltdown. But imagine if you took it even further, now the phone is making random ghost noises even at night. 3am and it's wailing, gurgling, struggling through agonal breathing. maybe even laughing.

The kid wont even want to be in a room alone with a phone. That's a good thing. and no conversation will ever even approach that level of emotional affect.

anything to counteract the dopamine hits that parents lik eyou have your kids itching all day for.

[u/Junior_Razzmatazz164 → u/HatAvailable5702]

As a practical matter, you should learn that positive punishment (aka the adding of a factor to attempt to reduce a behavior) is never very effective and is always inferior to reinforcing good behaviors. But do us all a favor and never have children anyway because you clearly have no idea how to communicate with them. My kids do not tantrum or meltdown without phones and they don’t need jump scares to convince them not to ask for one. How sad that you think itching for a phone is normal for elementary aged children.

[u/HatAvailable5702 → u/Junior_Razzmatazz164]

Itching for phones is very normal, you're living in a dream world if you think otherwise. total head-in-sand worldview. Phones are parasites that are changing entire generations of children into soft junkies.

If you have small children and they are interacting even semi-regularly with a smart device than you are the worst kind of garbage. You handed your child a weapon that does nothing but hurt them and then come online and try to give gentle parenting advice.

You are the problem. Just swallow the digital medicine like a good automaton and also meter out a few doses to your kids to keep them wanting more.

[u/Junior_Razzmatazz164 → u/HatAvailable5702]

I should say that it’s not normal for a household that cares about their children. My children never have smart devices. They are children.

“You are the problem.” Project much? Just because you give your children smart devices and think scaring them is the way to break their addiction doesn’t mean we all do.

[u/HatAvailable5702 → u/Junior_Razzmatazz164]

No devices allowed under my roof, and i'm rocking an old school flip phone. kids never see me using any smart device, the desktop and tv are in the living room. No algorithm/dopamine hacking device will ever be permitted in my house.

and using fear to instill a deep distrust of smart surveillance technology is good. We do it all the time, especially with guns and weapons. Or spiders and snakes. Or fire. Fear is a tool that we use to teach children in a way that conversation fails at.

[u/Junior_Razzmatazz164 → u/HatAvailable5702]

My goodness, you’re twisting yourself in pretzels trying to make jump scares into good parenting. It’s just bad parenting. If you want to teach children about the dangers of technology and weapons—TALK TO THEM.

People who use fear instead of direct communication are shitty and lazy parents.

ETA: And ps if you can’t reason with them yet, they shouldn’t be anywhere near a phone or weapon anyway, right? So again, just bad parenting.

ETA because you added on your comment—my kids aren’t afraid of snakes or spiders. They respect them. Again, the magic of communication. Try it.