{"id":10151,"date":"2018-09-24T13:49:13","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T13:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.potentialplusuk.org\/?p=10151"},"modified":"2020-02-24T13:32:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T13:32:39","slug":"the-hlp-diaries-call-me-maybe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/potentialplusuk.org\/index.php\/2018\/09\/24\/the-hlp-diaries-call-me-maybe\/","title":{"rendered":"The HLP Diaries…Call Me, Maybe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bemused Parent:<\/strong><\/em> Entry 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re in the park for a playdate and the talk is all about mobile phones. Ada\u2019s friend, Olivia, has just acquired her Dad\u2019s old mobile, and yet again I\u2019m being begged for one.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019m not allowing it. Mobiles are best for when you\u2019re at secondary school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pleading. \u201cOh Mum, how long do I have to wait? It\u2019s not fair – secondary is ages away. Olivia is playing Pok\u00e9mon now. You know it\u2019s educational because you can send gifts from different Poke stops which are landmarks, they are places like fountains and churches. My friend has just sent me lots of Pok\u00e9mon gifts from Germany because they have lots of special place names and you can see the language. I can be the best at German if I can learn from my own mobile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smartphones and other desirable gadgets have come to the fore again. Children the same age as Ada that we\u2019ve known since they were toddlers now have mobiles, mostly for playing games so I\u2019m told. I did hear about \u201cextreme texting\u201d done by last year\u2019s year 6 school leavers, who sent about 60 \u201chellos\u201d at bedtime (then about a hundred goodnights \u2013 hello, goodbye, unsuspecting parents!). But I\u2019m doing well in a bid to keep Ada\u2019s HLP imagination ticking rather than relying on electronic entertainment. She does have an iPad, which has a much-enjoyed app on it called Doodle Maths<\/a> to help boost her giftedness for numbers along with Minecraft . A mobile however would be the coolness pinnacle. Or maybe not if you\u2019re anything like the woman sat next to us recently on a London bus, with her mobile on speakerphone so that all the passengers benefitted from her banal conversation. This week Donald Trump is sending out a practice text message to all US mobile phone owners to alert them about an emergency. He talks a lot of hot air but maybe Ada could have a high-alert text to remind her to \u201cstop playing and get dressed NOW\u201d?<\/p>\n

I did allow Pok\u00e9mon on my mobile during summer walks (those Eevees are so cute!). \u00a0Admittedly there are valuable learning experiences to be gained from certain apps in moderation; to deny their use might make me a bad parent. So, the best tactic seemed to play the game together \u2013 Ada loved owning my mobile and her animation at finding the different pocket monsters was fantastic.<\/p>\n

Last week we looked around a respected senior school and stopped off in their cafe area after a tour. To my surprise, there were many girls sitting around staring at or listening to music on their mobiles. Those that didn\u2019t have one were desperately trying to look. The only conversation began with the words \u201cYouTube\u201d. It struck me that the children were disengaged, although Ada was excited and said that she would love to attend the school which permitted mobiles. \u201cThis modern world is forever releasing more electronic devices and as time goes on more people are buying them,\u201d she said impressively. \u201cYou can always set up privacy settings to make sure that no-one cyberbullies you.\u201d Generation HLP is much more clued-up than the parents.<\/p>\n

All that screen time worry called for a Mum\u2019s relaxation in front of the telly, so I tuned in to the latest \u201dAnne With An E\u201d episode. I love the Anne of Green Gables books and although the television series isn\u2019t quite true to the plot lines, there are some delightful scenes showing Anne and her pal Diana playing outdoors. They are older than Ada, but those days gone by reminded me of how children used to play \u2013 ballgames, making up stories, hide and seek…none of the sense that modern childhood ends at twelve. Many HLP kids thrive on imaginative play, which I think comes from their awareness of surroundings and potential for creativity. Ada thinks that as long as you encourage imagination, \u201cyou can have both the phone and the healthy mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon on my mobile and other apps in moderation are the compromise. Although at breakfast Ada said: \u201cMum, did you know that iOS12 is released on Monday? You can download it to check how long I\u2019ve been on my iPad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh. How did you know that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was on my iPad Tips. Mum, you know how you won\u2019t let me have a mobile? Well you think that robotics is good and phones are basically robots, all you do is program them!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

In this series we mine the wealth of lived experience and invite members to share their thoughts with us \u2013 perhaps through an article, advice, sharing their careers, a piece of fiction or a poem. The HLP Diaries are fictional tales of parenting children with high learning potential. If you are a Potential Plus UK member and have an anecdote you would like to share then we’d love to hear from you: email focus@potentialplusuk.org<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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