Slightly similar experience with our 10 (nearly 11) year old. Kept hearing about other girls doing tiktok and Snapchat and that she was being isolated and didnāt know anything about it. Held strong for a while but could see that it was impacting herā¦ Not being invited on playdates etc.
So we reached a compromise where its a once a week thing with tiktok and she checks Snapchat a few times a week for 10/15 mins.
All they want to do on tiktok is do dances with their friends. Harmless enough. Some of the stuff on tiktok (even in restricted mode) is dodgy enough at times so itās not ideal. Snapchat is just WhatsApp for kidsā¦ Except that the messages disappear. They are apps out there that allow you to capture everything but we havenāt gone there as her interactions are minimal and from looking over her shoulder, seem harmless.
I was anti social media for kids but sheās our eldest and we are learning on the fly hereā¦ When it comes to this stuff you are only as strong as the weakest parent at times. Weāve had 8 and 9 year olds arrive for playdates with phones! Ffs. In one case I fired it back into the motherās car before she drove off and told her to bring it with her.
Things have changed fast or regressed in a way youngest is 19 we bought her a basic smartphone for her 9th birthday, sheās turned out alright so far anyway. No Snapchat or insta back then though
Itās not Tik tok or Snapchat for my lad but gaming online with his pals playing fifa and the like on his switch. His school, gaa and soccer mates all chatting away and half of them havenāt met each other in person but i get to approve his friends before he accepts. Iāll hover over and listen away for a while and itās all pretty harmless. Fortnite is creeping in now which is a bit heavier. Heāll still go outside and play with friends and sports at the drop of a hat but weāll increase limits if that stops happening.
Fortnite is a big issue amongst older lads. Up all night and coming into school wrecked tired. I was talking to a psychologist about it who explained that when a kid makes a mistake and fails to get to next level, its all that is occupying their mind until they play again. Thus, concentration levels are non existent. There was a lad in our place with bad cuts along his knuckles. I got the chaplaincy team to touch base with him. Apparently he punched the wall after making a mistake on fortnite or the like.
Yeah a girl I worked with was having awful trouble with her son over it. Sneaking down in middle of the night to play for hours and him physically fighting with her. Iām starting to hear this lad is on level 53 and the likes now. Will be clamping down on that a bit and encouraging other games
Our eldest lad who is in 1st class has classmates who it seems are up half the night playing Fortnite with their older brothers. I donāt think our fella even understands what it is and that suits us for as long as possible.
Our lads school was closed today and the 2 lads spent most of the day outside playing football and hurling (badly). I was stuck inside trying to feed the baby looking out at them wondering how we got to this stage.
At times she probably gets it too much but itās a mad house at times. At least the mention of a walk or the Playground still trumps the IPad time thankfully.
My young lad has a classmate living 50 yards away and Iād say they played soccer on the green for the guts of 30 hours last week. Fought like cats and dogs aboit 5 times a day but went back at it after. A neighbour teaches music so loads of mothers parked up for an hour waiting for kids and a regular supply of bored kids hopping out of the car and into the soccer match just to mix it up
Thatās it exactly. The younger of the 2 will benefit hugely from it. Heās playing his first year of U7s and would be the smallest lad on the team. He went straight up the biggest lad on the other team to try to āshoulderā him. His shoulder was an elbow into the other lads stomach. It was so blatant that nearly every parent on the sideline just burst out laughing.
All I could think of was that when the elder lad was that age he wouldnāt even go onto the pitch and was crying his eyes out on the sideline with us.
When the baby gets to U7 age heāll probably be hacking the shit out of anyone who comes close to him
The latest one I have is that the girls that I teach in 2nd class is Roblox, I had never heard of it. But it seems like an online community, with lots of random anonymous chat. Same issues creeping in, with some girls only chatting to others who play this game. But that was nipped in the bud. Anyway the lads just go out to kick football and talk stats. Nothing changes there!
This happened our 10 year old and 7 year old this year but not as severely. Suddenly realised she was walking down from school alone. Turns out all the other girls were mad into those click things (poppers). All talk in school was about them and swopping them etc. She had no interest in them but was excluded cos she had no idea about them. We (mrs J) read up about it in a book about kids. Advice was to convince her to get involved even if she wasnt interested originally because being part of the group can be more fun than the actual activity. We bought her a few of them to swap/trade and it all went away immediately. I know its not quite the same but id imagine if those girls were sound for years theyāll be sound to her again pretty quick. Iām also surprised they all have phones at 9 though. Very few of the little ladies class have and theyre finishing fourth class now.
