"Everyone's addicted to screens!"

Hello and welcome to my blog. It's lovely to see you again.

If you're new, welcome. Come on in and make yourself at home. There's plenty of room for all.

In my last blog, I wrote about the night we realised that our 8 year-old had become addicted to screens. Whilst I neither named him nor printed a photograph, we only have one son so he was easily identified.

It is only fair therefore, that he is given the chance to have his say. Firstly, he wanted to set the record straight; he hid the computer when he was seven.

Me:     So Tom, do you think you're addicted to screens?

Tom:   No. Yes. Yes I do.

Me:     Why?

Tom:   Because everyone's addicted to screens.

Me:     Really?

Tom:   Yep, 'cos they're brilliant.

Me:      What's so brilliant about them?

Tom:   You can interact with other people, the only way you can see things move is on screen, and you can make yourself into a fish.

Me:    A fish?


Tom:   Yep.

Me:     So what's the best and worse thing about screens?

Tom:   The best thing is playing on Dad's iPad because I've just downloaded a new game called Clash of Clans, which is brilliant.    Is that a dictophone?

Me:     Yeah

Tom:   Cool

Me:    So what's the worse thing?

Tom:   Dad not letting me download the things I want to download, and you and Dad interrupting my 10 minutes.

Me:    Ok. So how about if a kid was addicted to screens, would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

Tom:   A good thing.

Me:    I see. Let's assume it's a bad thing. What would you say to a kid you thought was addicted to screens?

Tom:  How good are your games?

Me:     So you don't think being addicted to screens is bad at all?

Tom:   No way! Kids, let your imagination go wild with screens!   Can I go now?

I think that interview is what you would call an own goal.

I may have lost this battle, but the war is young and I've still got years left in me.

Thanks for dropping by and I look forward to seeing you again in a fortnight.

Ta-ra for now.