The day I realized gadgets are NOT evil
Just like every mom, I try to give my child all the best. I plan outdoor activities for my 6-year-old daughter, I organize road trips, suggest fun games at home. All in all, I provide my girl with a healthy environment, filled with joy, love, support and fun. Being really concerned about her health I delayed the moment of introducing my child to gadgets till the very last minute, thinking that all they could do is cause damage to my girl's eyesight, brain development and so on. Still, the moment was inevitable.
THE DAY MY DAUGHTER GOT A HOLD OF A SMARTPHONE
The day my daughter got a hold of a smartphone changed lives for both of us. Of course, like every kid, she absolutely loved it and wanted to spend as much time playing with it as possible. At first, I was naive enough to think that she will lose interest once gets “carte blanche” on screen time. But the days, weeks, months flew by and she became even more eager. To be honest, I panicked. I was dreading the thought of raising an Internet-addicted kid. So I decided to take action.
I CAME UP WITH A PLAN
Two weeks and eight arguments later we managed to reach an agreement on limited screen time. I downloaded the app, called OurPact, which lets parents set the limits on the amount of time the kid spends using gadgets. This was the first stage of my plan and it worked!!! So I happily proceeded. The second stage was aimed at carefully picking the content my daughter watches online. I started searching for kids-friendly shows on YouTube that were actually teaching kids something. And I found tons of them but my girl wasn’t interested. The list of reasons “PRO” those educating shows and apps were totally rejected. I was desperate. I started blaming myself for being a bad mom, for not paying enough attention to my child’s education, for introducing her to gadgets in the first place. Boy, was I upset…😢 Until something magical happened.
THE DAY MY DAUGHTER AND I SAW THE MAGIC
Three weeks ago, after a long day at work, I was really tired. So when my daughter asked me if she could spend some time on my smartphone, I agreed, laid down on my couch, closed my eyes looking forward to a couple of minutes in peace and quiet. 🤫
“Do you want to sleep, mommy?”, I heard my sweet girl’s voice.
“Yes, baby. I would love to have a moment to relax” — I replied.
“Here, listen to this”, she said. And I heard the most tender lullaby I have ever heard in my entire life.
“I will be listening to it before bedtime every night from now on”, my daughter said. I liked the idea and wanted to reward my daughter for the effort she put into finding the beautiful lullaby on the Internet.
“Where did you find this lovely melody?”, I asked.
“It’s the Little Blue Dragon. He played it for me after I gathered all the missing pieces of the music player in his little cave”, she said. She sounded so excited and into the process. “Wanna see?”, she asked.
I’ll be honest, I got interested. So I replied: “Of course, show me”.
My little girl’s eyes were shining with excitement while she opened an app, called “Little Blue Dragon” and showed me all the magic it offers. I was mesmerized. My daughter and I read together an interesting story which is constantly at the process of being updated about the Little Blued Dragon and his friends trying to save his lost home. We saw a coloring book with Augmented Reality that let the kids color and then bring the colored characters to life. We printed all the available images, colored them and watched them magically come alive. The Little Blue Dragon, being the main character of the tale, was to save the Blue Planet with the help of his friends — other characters of the book and kids who are willing to join. The Little Blue Dragon doesn’t just offer to play a game, it can also accompany your kid through the day. You can visit him at his little cave and brush your teeth with him in the morning or come see him before bedtime, gather the missing pieces of the player to hear the mentioned above lullaby to soothe your child before falling asleep. 😴
Up until now from the moment my daughter introduced Little Blue Dragon into our family, morning hygiene routine and bedtime became her favorite. With the Little Blue Dragon, we learned to skip long conversations about the necessity of brushing teeth in the morning and in the evening, the routine before bedtime also became fun and peaceful.
The Little Blue Dragon became her friend, her so-called digitalized pet. The app also had a feature, called “summon the dragon”. By using it, my daughter could make her Little Blue Dragon appear at any moment, at any place. She never felt lonely anymore! When I was busy with the household or working, she would just summon her Little Blue Dragon and have fun with him. By the way, fun is not all the Little Blue Dragon can do. When my kid didn’t feel like studying or taking piano classes, I would suggest sitting her Little Blue Dragon next to her so they could do it all together. And it worked!!! Together with the Little Blue Dragon, my daughter grew more eager to studying, doing chores, learning new things and so much more. See for yourself :-)
Find out more about this app here.
Now we are enthusiastically waiting for the new chapters of the book about the adventures of the Little Blue Dragon to come out on App store, so we could read them, print the pages, color them together and watch the characters come alive.
The Little Blue Dragon taught my daughter love and responsibility. The Little Blue Dragon taught me that gadgets and Internet are not here to turn our kids into little slaves with no personal opinion.
I am grateful to my little daughter for introducing me to the Little Blue Dragon and thankful to the little Blue Dragon in return for being there for my daughter at any moment she is in need of a loyal friend.
Author: Tonya - https://medium.com/@littlebluedragon
