As technology does more things for us and kids stay inside supervised for more hours of the day there is an effect. In the nicest way possible I refer to it as the Wussification. Esquire did a piece in the same vein awhile ago.

Take away their TV, internet, and their electronic devices and the look on their faces. It’s like you took their life-preserver. They will claim that they are immediately going to drown. You are mean, they can’t survive this way, or they are going to die. Am I advocating that we all become Amish and deny ourselves modern conveniences? Nor am I villifying video games.  Simply put, No. Video games can teach lots of useful things.  What I am advocating is that you assist your children in finding interests that don’t require them to plug in or charge. What that interest is I can’t tell you. They have to try things. You have to back away and let them try things.

Your life needs balance. You have to get some physical activity. Children also needs space to make mistakes and figure out problems on their own. If you as a parent are always picking them up and catching them they will never learn how to fall or get themselves back up. The longer you keep them in this little bubble of zero failure the more potential damaging it can be. You have 18 year olds heading off to college who will have complete breakdowns because they didn’t know life could have any downside. And that any down will be followed by an up.

Yes we’ve been there we’ve made our own mistakes and we know how to do it right. The problem is they are often not ready to hear the correct answer yet. Part of wisdom is knowing when they are ready to hear it. Only masochists like to hear “I told you so”. The rest of us would rather not.  When you give the “cheat code” advice they likely won’t retain it as well as stubbing your toe and the pain associated with that incident.  Some times its as simple as asking if they want to know another way to approach a certain problem. If they are not ready to hear it. Respect that.