Are we making a disservice to our children when they call us when they have a normal real world problem instead of trying to solve them by themselves? Everyday mishaps like missing the bus, getting to the school in time, informing what to eat from the fridge or getting lost from parents in a shop.
I claim we do. Instead of getting our children to use their own brains what to do, we solve the problem for them. Kids should learn to handle such situation without parental control or guidance. We prevent a great learning and growing experiences. This phenomena is commonly known as a helicopter parenthood (also known as curling parenthood)
Today I realised that there is more and more technology and applications available for helicopter parents. Helicopter parenting is made easy. I read an article on Norwegian inventor Sten Kirkbak who presented a new device in CES 2013. He had loist sight for his 3.5 year old son in a shopping centre in Oslo for 20 minutes. Instead of teaching [in advance] the kid what to do in such a situation, Kirkbak invented a wristwatch combined with GPS, WiFi and GSM. With a help of Evado Filip you would never loose your child again - and if that happened, you could phone her/him to the device's phone (or vice versa). Making life much easier.
I can see the benefit of Evado Filip in an elderly care as alarm device in case of emergencies - but when we invent these devices in order to solve the challenges our kids have in the real life, we create a generation who can't creatively handle different crisis situations. They learn the model: Dont try to solve the situation by yourself, it's safer to phone to someone and ask help.
Perhaps it has happened already. Even adults phone to 112 in most weirdest situations. For instance, what a police/fire department can do in an electricity black out?
While thinking of this I came out for a new technology term which I believe will flourish in the future. Or they do even now. The mobile phone itself is an obvious one (not the device but how you instruct it is used) and the application market flourish different alternatives. The search "find children gps" in a Google Play you drown with the results.
Links:
News Story on Kirkbak's invention (in Norwegian)
About Curling parenting (also called as helicopter parenting)
An example of another helicopter technology device
I claim we do. Instead of getting our children to use their own brains what to do, we solve the problem for them. Kids should learn to handle such situation without parental control or guidance. We prevent a great learning and growing experiences. This phenomena is commonly known as a helicopter parenthood (also known as curling parenthood)
Today I realised that there is more and more technology and applications available for helicopter parents. Helicopter parenting is made easy. I read an article on Norwegian inventor Sten Kirkbak who presented a new device in CES 2013. He had loist sight for his 3.5 year old son in a shopping centre in Oslo for 20 minutes. Instead of teaching [in advance] the kid what to do in such a situation, Kirkbak invented a wristwatch combined with GPS, WiFi and GSM. With a help of Evado Filip you would never loose your child again - and if that happened, you could phone her/him to the device's phone (or vice versa). Making life much easier.
I can see the benefit of Evado Filip in an elderly care as alarm device in case of emergencies - but when we invent these devices in order to solve the challenges our kids have in the real life, we create a generation who can't creatively handle different crisis situations. They learn the model: Dont try to solve the situation by yourself, it's safer to phone to someone and ask help.
Perhaps it has happened already. Even adults phone to 112 in most weirdest situations. For instance, what a police/fire department can do in an electricity black out?
While thinking of this I came out for a new technology term which I believe will flourish in the future. Or they do even now. The mobile phone itself is an obvious one (not the device but how you instruct it is used) and the application market flourish different alternatives. The search "find children gps" in a Google Play you drown with the results.
Helicopter parenting technology (curling technology): Technology which helps parents to solve real world challenges for their kids and preventing children to solve them for themselves. (suomennos curling-teknologia, other forms helicopter technology)It might sound crude, but we instructed our kids precicely not to call us in situations where they meet problems and challenges and urged them to find solutions by themselves. And it as worked. For instance it has happened more than once that we have lost each others in a shop - instead of phoning (as saving time of course) - kids have reasoned an ordinary shopping cart route in a shop and found us. Examples are many - even from the bigger challenges.
 |
| Helicopter parenthood creates an oppotrunity for helicopter technology. Evado Filip Trio |
Links:
News Story on Kirkbak's invention (in Norwegian)
About Curling parenting (also called as helicopter parenting)
An example of another helicopter technology device
Kommentit
Lähetä kommentti