I don’t get the martyrdom bit.

Who ever said that even with grade-school kids, we must play games that bore us to tears or we’re not good parents? Especially if they have siblings or neighbors to play those games with? What’s stopping any adult from coming up, instead, with a mutual chore, a long walk, a good book, a good recipe, a game the ADULT likes, etc?

Explain.

I would add that Dr. John Rosemond has written more than once that kids under 3 cannot be expected to entertain themselves happily without either playmates and/or adult supervision. However, after 3, while they still very much need peers to play with as well as family time, they can and should be able to play alone at times. Otherwise, it’s perfectly OK for the parent to say, most of the time at least, “we will do what WORK needs to be done, or we will do what *I* enjoy and consider important. Otherwise, find a playmate your age.”

Needless to say, he does not approve of giving grade-school kids even 2 hours a day of “screen time,” including texting. Plus, as pediatricians have said often, babies and toddlers should not watch TV at all.

Finally, while this may be just a rumor right now, it may soon come true. Namely, employers are said to be increasingly desperate for young employees who are actually willing and able to deal with clients face to face – or even on the telephone – and many of them can’t, because they’re too used to texting instead, which gives them emotional advantages they don’t have on the phone or in person. We can’t afford to coddle kids like that.

For more, see Neil Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death.”