Wednesday, 26 July 2017

The Octopus Watch, to help kids develop good habits. Great idea or terrible idea?


Octopus Watch. Have you heard of this thing? My wife insisted on pre-ordering one forever ago, and it just arrived. I've been resistant to the very idea of it this whole time, and I've told her so. She insisted. She wants to give it to our daughter for Xmas, who will be 3.5 by then.The idea is that this smartwatch for kids will help them develop good habits. You can set up reminders, and an icon of a toothbrush or whatever will pop up on the kid's watch at the time you want, to remind them to do certain things. (It can also teach them to read analog and digital watches, as they get older and can handle that).I just can't get my head around why this is a good idea. I feel like my kid should be free from a rigid schedule, and free from the tyranny of being tethered to a device and doing what the device tells her. I feel like it shouldn't be necessary. She's a kid. I want her to be a kid.Maybe it's because I feel held hostage by my own phone. I don't want that for my kid. All the articles written about this thing are shill/marketing pieces, so they're no help.Strictly speaking, yeah, it's a screen, but I'm not sure if it should count against "screen time" since it's just a vibration and picture that they dismiss by pushing a button. I'm hoping you can help convince me that I'm wrong, that I should stop being such a Luddite and embrace technology. Maybe it really is that important to help kids develop good habits from an early age.For the record, our daughter is great at brushing her teeth (though she does forget some nights, as do I) and usually complies with bedime, but she's resistant to getting dressed and helping feed the dog. As with most 3-year-olds, there are sometimes fights/tantrums/exhaustion when she doesn't want to do things. Is this something that can actually help? Am I putting too much weight on the "being a kid" thing?Here's the product website: http://ift.tt/2iLDdJz via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2vIpoQ5

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