Donât you oppress me.
My lad has been getting the number 42 to school on his own since age 10, and letâs himself in and out with a keybox. Hence we got him a phone. Trouble is all his pals have smart phones, so I got him a smart phone.
Iâm getting increasingly uneasy at the amount of time he spends on it.
Heâs banned from Facebook, snapshot etc, and itâs linked to mine so I can see if he gets any apps, but it just doesnât sit well.
I was worried heâd be teased if I bought him an oul yoke, so I didnât. I convinced myself it was so he could listen to his music, which he does a lot, but really itâs because I was too precious.
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The school I teach in is a fee paying school. They have far more resources devoted to pastoral care than is the norm.
There is literally an epidemic now of kids running to chaplaincy/pastoral care over every little thing under the sun. The school has in fact normalised this behaviour. Kids running to chaplaincy prior to exams as they are feeling anxious etc.
Feeling anxious prior to exams/matches is absolutely normal and not something that should be taken up said resources. There is an element of contagion taking place aswell. The problem is that it takes away from the time needed to deal with the kids with genuine issues that require intervention.
The lad who heads up the Chaplaincy team is snowed under. He said that his workload is three times what it was in his previous school of a comparable size.
There is no easy solution.
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Itâs what two or three generations of comfortable middle class gets you.
People will always find something to worry about. For the vast majority in Ireland, itâs not starving or freezing.
Iâve heard the same from school teacher friends - Teens being teens are all jumping on the anxiety bandwagon to get out of work- Thatâs what happens when you allow a social climber be your spokesperson on mental health and direct the conversation on it and not an expert.
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I see this problem with my niece and nephew (both under 10). Some of their friends already have smartphones. Their parents are concerned that if they donât get them the phones at the same time as the rest of their peers, then the kids could be get isolated/be bullied etc.
As mentioned up above, itâs the parents rather than the kids that are largely the problem. Itâs no wonder that kids want smartphones when they see their parents on them morning, noon and night.
Too easy for parents to give in to kids nowadays for an easy life. Parents donât want to disappoint their kids, when in fact by doing so they would be helping to build resilience.
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Exactly.
what a killjoy
Bang on. Itâs almost cool now to say youâve a mental illness. Itâs a handy catch all excuse every time something goes wrong in your life.
All the while the genuine sufferer, whoâd love nothing more than to be able to live normally but can barely function, gets to see the illness thatâs ruining their life glorified by people who havenât a clue what theyâre talking about
I wasnât even worried about him being isolated or bullied, just being teased. So I bought him an expensive, potentially harming piece of advanced hardware.
There is zero logic.
Have you learned from it?
I was at a parent teacher meeting recently. Teacher brought up the subject of banning phones from the school premises. In class obviously but also in non class time. There was uproar from some of the parents, that it was a denial of their kidsâ rights! Where are you going, like?
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The young fella showed him how to make downloads.
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I hate people.
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Shit parenting is to blame for all of societyâs ills.
cc @ChocolateMice
It certainly goes a long way towards it, pal.
Ive observed.
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Youâre not far wrong. My eight year old just synced my phone to the car where I failed.
People in general are stuipid cunts.It would be no harm for kids to have a few hours away from their phones.No kid needs a phone at school.Use the landline if you have to.