For about a month, we had an aggressive, uncooperative, overtired five-year-old in place of where our son used to be.
A few things had certainly changed in his life that we could attribute to the bad behaviour.
Christmas was over, and with the end of the season went his cousins back to the UK who he adored playing with everyday of the two weeks that they were here.
School started back up again and we also moved, albeit temporarily, while we get an extension built onto our house.
So he was displaced a bit, away from his own space and toys and we felt sorry for him being put out so..
… we gave him the iPad.
It started out as an innocent enough gesture, a few minutes playing some games to give him something special, something that was just for him.
He was keen to get his hands on it when Alan came home from work and we weren’t sure if he was pleased to see his dad, or just pleased to get the iPad.
Then he started asking for it when he woke up in the morning.
And then he began getting upset if the battery ran out mid-game.
If I asked him to put it down to come for dinner, he got arsy and ‘wanted to finish one more level’.
He refused to go to pre-school two mornings one week and we put it all down to his taking his time adjusting to his new temporary home.
Then the pre-school reported that Jacob hit three of his little friends during class for the first time in the two and a half years of his being there.
We decided to put the collective foot down, and issue consequences for bad behaviour and the first thing to go…. the iPad.
At first, he was a bit demented about it and asked for it all the time. We just kept telling him he wasn’t having it anymore and eventually we said it was just broken.
That was over a week ago and the changes in our little man, the ones we didn’t like, have completely been reversed.
He is sleeping well again, he is playing with his toys instead of sticking his head into games, he is pleasant, affectionate and mostly, he isn’t constantly demanding his electronic addiction pad anymore.
Was it just taking away the iPad, or was it a combination of that, and us putting our foot down about bad behaviour in general? I’m not entirely sure but one thing I do know is that he won’t be playing Angry Birds again anytime soon.
Do your young kids play games on the iPad? Do you think it affects their behaviour? Join the conversation below.
