Raising Children Today
Many parents and grandparents see it: children who cannot sit still or listen, and who fall apart when the screen is taken away. Children have not changed at heart. What has changed is how they are being raised.
What Has Changed
The screen has become the babysitter. A phone or tablet keeps a child quiet, but it does not teach patience or manners. A child who is always entertained never learns to be content.
Children are not reading. Reading teaches a child to sit still and follow a thought to its end. A child raised on quick videos struggles to pay attention to anything slow, and that includes the Bible.
Children are not moving. Children were made to run and play. Energy that never gets used comes out as restlessness and bad behavior.
Children are not eating right. Snacks and fast food in place of real meals affect mood and attention as well as health. The family meal at the table is disappearing, and with it one of the best times a family had to talk.
Correction has been replaced by distraction. It is easier to hand a child a device than to correct him. The behavior gets quieted, but it never gets corrected.
What Scripture Says
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
“Correct your son, and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul.” (Proverbs 29:17)
“And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4)
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” (Deuteronomy 6:6–7)
Practical Advice
Set limits on screens. Keep them out of bedrooms and off the dinner table.
Put your own phone down too. Children copy what they see.
Read to your children every day while they are young, and read the Bible with them.
Send them outside and give them chores. A tired child is usually a better-behaved child.
Cook real meals and eat together at the table as often as you can.
Correct by changing what the child is doing, not by hitting. Do not slap, hit or spank. Move the child away from what he was doing to a quiet place, such as the couch, and have him sit there and do nothing for a while. Obedience is learned when behavior is actively changed. Be consistent: a rule that is enforced only sometimes is not a rule.
Teach children to use words. Communication is key in every part of life, and the young need to learn to say what they feel instead of throwing a tantrum. Ignore the tantrum, and listen when they use their words.
Ask every child every day, “Is there anything we need to talk about?” A child who knows the door is open will come through it.
Take them to church, and let them see you pray.
Grandparents can help here. Read to them, and take them outdoors where there is no screen.
From My Own Life
The age of electronics has changed the way children are raised. When I was growing up, playing outside was an everyday thing. At night the whole family sat down to the meal together, and there was prayer and reading. Nobody thought of it as anything special. It was simply how a home was run, and it shaped us more than we knew.
A Question to Think About
Who is raising your children for more hours each day: you, or a screen?
The lesson: A child left to himself will be raised by whatever fills his time. Make sure it is you.