June 8, 2005
Parenting by cell phone
Working parents have long used the telephone to keep tabs on their children, especially for safety reasons after school hours... But experts see another role for cellphones: Parents want to be emotionally available to their children at all times of the day. The Mercury News reports.
"Using the telephone to parent is part of a larger societal change of more ongoing conversations between parents and children, says Steven Mintz, a history professor at the University of Houston.
"We have our kids on call," says Mintz. There is no "our lives" and "their lives." Part of it is fear. Part of it is guilt. Also, our identities are more wrapped up in our children. We would, if we could, spend immense amounts of time with them."
Child-rearing experts disagree whether all this connecting is good for children. Some say the availability of parents during the day can be comforting to children. "There's a sense of emotional security if children know they can get in touch with their parents when they need to," says Sheila Dubin, a parenting consultant in Los Gatos."
But others say children should not have such easy access to their parents, or their parents to them. Telephones "interfere with concrete real-world interactions children need," says Diane Levin, a professor of education at Wheelock College in Boston."
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