Photo from @officialjuday Instagram
For parents of digital natives, it’s a daily struggle to think of ways to moderate their children’s gadget use. Telling them to stop using their phones isn’t as easy because technology has become a necessity in our daily lives. For Ryan Agoncillo and Judy Ann Santos, they’ve found the sweet spot between need and want.
Agoncillo told PEP, “One of the basic rules for Yohan and Lucho when they started to go to school, Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon, they can’t do the iPad thing, they can’t go on the laptops, they can’t touch their video gaming consoles.”
Okay, sounds easy enough. But what if they need it for school?
He said that the kids are only allowed to use their gadgets on weekdays if it’s for research. He added that “we’re always covering.”
Santos echoed the sentiment in a similar interview with PEP. She told the website that they are not allowed to play games or watch videos. They can only research, and they have to learn something from that research.
The benefit? Now Lucho researches on dinosaurs, piranhas, and poisonous frogs. Agoncillo even built him a “science lab” for his sixth birthday.
The celebrity couple also revealed that the kids are allowed to play on weekdays, as long as it doesn’t involve a gadget. So they can go to the playground, ride bikes, or play musical instruments.
In fact, it has even come to a point that they don’t have to enforce the rules. The kids just do it themselves.
However, they conceded that there will come a point when the kids will go on social media. Agoncillo said, “I don’t think it’s healthy for someone at their age to actually engage in it. To be exposed, I guess, it’s inevitable. But to engage, I wouldn’t encourage it, not yet.”
What do you think of this rule? Share your thoughts below!
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