Are Your Kids Hogging too much of your time, and leaving you strained and drained? You are not alone.

Our kids have this need to be constantly stimulated and kept busy. We made the mistake of letting  DSI, Xbox, Ipad and the good old Television do that job for us until we noticed impatience and irritability creeping into their personalities and apparently their vision was also getting affected by the non-stop exposure to these gadgets. We had to do something to tackle this situation.

My better half and I hatched a plan that seemed like an Easy Button to deal with this situation. So on a Saturday Afternoon, we started clicking pictures of all these items. The kids had a baffled look on their faces. We told them that we were going to list their DSI, XBOX, IPAD, TV and other handheld video games for sale on eBay and before they could react to that, we added, that this was just so that we could upgrade to the newer and better versions of all of them. They willingly helped us in taking close-ups from various angles and the older one even offered to write up descriptions for the eBay listings. Within a week our household was cleansed of these modern day banes of technology.

When the kids started clamoring for the promised newer/upgraded/updated versions, we sometimes told them that we were still looking for deals and at other times suggested they wait for a while as there were rumors in the market of another updated version of the gadget in question, being launched soon.

This has seemed to work for us. Of coarse, it has meant for us to devote extra time to ‘entertain’ the boys.. but I was kind of prepared for this.

I’ve started taking them out for a game of tennis, or a round of cycling or jogging on a regular basis. However, I am now faced with a new issue… After these activities, I want to rewind and may be read a book or spend some time with my better half over a cup of tea, but my tireless bundles of energies would still need to be ‘entertained’! With their gadgets gone, I was their new ‘time-pass’. “Play something, Do something, We’re getting bored.” became their new catch-phrase.

This is like dealing with a two headed dragon. We chopped one head of the dragon by getting rid of their electronic gadgets and out cropped another head. Now, I do love my kids a lot, but I still need my me-time and my spouse-time too. But with their toys gone, they want all the time to be family-time. I still cannot figure out if there’s an Easy Button to bail me out of this one.

I even penned a short story that illustrates a similar situation in a humorous way. It is titled Not My Cup Of Tea! and it is available on Amazon.com in Kindle format (Its Free for Amazon Prime Members and makes an interesting read).

I invite my readers for suggestions on how to get back my me-time and spouse-time from my kids. In a recent discussion with my spouse, I did bring up the question of whether it would be OK to buy the kids (only 1 of) their favorite “gadgets”, but it was nipped in the bud with a stern look. So I’m still racing the horses of my brains to get out of this little predicament. I will keep you posted.