When a child is small and cries, we give them a pacifier to calm them, and the child gets so used to it that if they lose it, the parent rushes to find another. The child and the pacifier become inseparable, while the parent has more time for personal affairs. But we all know that a child’s crying is usually because they are hungry or need attention; since they cannot speak, they cry. As they grow, crying is part of communication to seek affection; we as parents must figure out what else might be going on.
Nowadays, many parents give their child a tablet to keep them occupied, so they don’t “bother” them, and to show how smart they are by managing a tablet at three or four years old. But the percentage of communication and affection drops. The time when a mother would take her child out of bed, carry them, and sing a song to put them to sleep is gone; now the child plays with their tablet until they fall asleep. Often, they cry because they are hungry or need a change, but parental attention has waned.
The child speaks, but they do not communicate, because there is no time to communicate with them; they talk to their tablet. When the battery dies, they toss it aside; the tablet is their best friend. Without it, they have no peace, because the tablet has replaced parental affection. The child shuts themselves off; they know their tablet very well, but the parents often don’t even know what kind of games are on it. The child becomes digitalized, without love, without communication, because a tablet is not a person.
As the child continues to grow, we buy them a phone so they can communicate with us, but we have opened the door for them to communicate with the world. Nowadays, a phone has everything, and children learn from others. The communication that you, as a parent, should have is broken, because even if the child doesn’t want to watch the same TV program as their parent, they watch something else on their phone, and they shut themselves off because they believe their phone has everything they need and they love their phone above all else.
So, whose fault is it? Who abandoned whom? And who forgot their responsibility? Do not forget that children are a gift from God.
Sincerely, Pastor Marcel Balootje.