A blessing and a curse

The Ipad, the Ipod, smart phones and the computer.  All of them are useful devices that help us get through our day.  Emails, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram etc. are all wonderful ways to share our lives and stay in touch with friends and family.  There are all sorts of educational apps that help us teach our children social skills, their ABC's, Mathematics, art, fashion design or pretty much anything else we can think of.  Apps help us find coupons, coffee shops, track our calories and remind us to drink our water.  We keep track of our family calendars and sync between all family members and their devices.  We can respond to texts and emails virtually anywhere at anytime.  These are all very helpful tools for busy families who cannot always pick up the phone during reasonable business hours.

However, my ADHD guy definitely has an addiction.  YouTube, Minecraft, Chess, Zombie Warfare, Clash of Clans.  All of these games and apps have their uses and I used to be very lenient because they were creative, strategic etc.  However, we let things go too far and the Ipad started going to bed.  At first it was occasionally, then it became more frequent.  Then my guy became dependent.  The Ipad goes to bed with him more often than not.  Yes, we disconnect wi-fi but, if he can't sleep, he just finds other games to play.

We went through a time when my guy wasn't able to fall asleep until 11pm.  This wasn't enough sleep to get him through the day and he turned into a hot mess very quickly.  We began cutting back on the Ipad and started some Melatonin and that helped.  However, the more research I did, the more I realized what I already knew - the Ipad needs to go.  We are on the 4 week countdown to the first day of school.  It is my goal to have the Ipad off an hour before bed and it stays downstairs.  It's going to be SO painful.  My little guy is not open to this at all.  I have flashbacks of putting my kids to bed when they were babies - that kind of painful.