Are silence and self-sufficiency lost arts?
I don't have kids but do a lot of work with schools. I have seen the effects of too much screen time but never really personally felt them until the other day. A friend's house was getting fumigated so she asked if her 12 year old twins could spend the day at mine since I work from home. They are sweet kids and I said no problem. Boy was I wrong! There were problems.
The girl ended up making plans with friends so was only here for a few minutes. The boy was here ALL DAMN DAY and I barely got any work done. It's not that he was trying to be obnoxious or anything like that. It's just that he requires constant stimulation and cannot deal with even a minute of silence. I set him up with his playstation and a TV downstairs and tried to work in my office upstairs. Never realized how much sound carries through my house! He was either screaming at his game or talking to his friends through a headset FOR HOURS. He also looked like a deer in headlights when I told him he was welcome to make whatever he wanted for lunch if he didn't want the Chinese leftovers I had in the fridge. It's not like my pantry is full of exotic foods that require culinary school to master. I had plenty of staples at the ready. He told me that his mom or sister always make him lunch. I'm pretty sure my mom stopped making my lunch around 4th grade and I quickly learned to make a mean egg sandwich.
Were my expectations too high? I fully thought that I would just be some nebulous adult presence, not an actual babysitter for a 12 yo.