What's Good for the Goose...

On my blogs, I try very hard to respect the privacy of my own children. I play a part in the creation of their digital footprint, and I do not want anyone searching for information about them online ten years from now to find a rant or excessively personal post about them, especially if I was the one who wrote it. This article on parents oversharing online was a good guideline for me, and prior to writing today's post, I checked with my son for permission to write about this topic. He's given the go-ahead, and this portrays him in a positive light as an insightful guy, so read on.

My son has screen time limits during the week. It was from reading articles like this on the impact of unlimited screen time that influenced this decision. How much, what, and when is irrelevant.What is important to this discussion is that he absolutely despises screen time restrictions and last week, he approached me with an interesting proposition.

I'm paraphrasing here, but essentially he said, "Mom, why am I the only one with screen time [limits]? I think, to be fair, that everyone in the house should have it too."

How can I argue with that logic?

We had a family meeting and we all agreed to the terms - for instance, in our household, doing required schoolwork on a computer would not count towards allotted screen time. (If this was the case, report-card writing or editing for the magazine would use up all my time!) I think he was hoping we'd drop all screen time restrictions instead, but we are all now closely monitoring the amount of time we spend glued to our electronic devices.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Does that mean ...
What's good for the student is good for the teacher?
What's good for the son or daughter is good for the father or mother?

I've been searching my brain for examples to show that a double-standard is necessary, but I'm having a hard time coming up with serious contenders. A good night's sleep? According to this chart, growing children may need a bit more, but we all need a decent amount and my pre-teen, teen, and I all need roughly about 10 hours per night. Exercise? Once again, the specific numbers may vary based on your age, but we all need to be physically active. Drinking water? Eating a balanced diet? Using appropriate language / reducing swearing? Listening attentively to others? Reading for pleasure? The quantity may differ but I can't insist that my children or students do things and I'm exempt just because I'm an adult.

I hope my children (and to a different extent, my students) continue to remind me to be consistent and that any rules or regulations I enforce be ones that I'd be willing to follow myself.

At my girl's confirmation May 29, 2014 - 3 of my greatest teachers!