SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Kids have always been a little difficult.
Technology may have made things worse, as the young tend to know more about tech than their parents do.
They know, for example, how to ignore mom and dad and do whatever they like.
Nick Herbert found this a touch frustrating.
Kids have a habit of simply not replying to texts. Not because they're bad kids, but, well, they're doing something more interesting on the phone -- like playing a game.
So, as CBS News reports, Herbert conceived ReplyASAP. This is an app (currently available only on Android) that forces your child to address your texts.
By annoying the living hell out of them.
[...] Herbert insists that ReplyASAP is meant to be used only in emergencies. This isn't about annoying your kids all the time, however tempting that might be.
Indeed, he told me that it's not about forcing your child to reply. Instead, he said: "It is simply a means of getting an important message to the child, even when they have their phone on silent, and for the parent to know they have seen it."
[Ed Note - Updated Google Play link to correct a typo]
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2, Disagree) by crafoo on Monday August 28 2017, @09:35PM (7 children)
No, it's bad parenting. If a child does not respond, ignores you, and then claims ignorance you take the phone away. Then you explain why. Finally you set out the rules for getting the phone back.
If you're trying to communicate something urgent to your child through a text message you are a bad parent.
Teaching responsibility and that actions have consequences is job #1 for all parents. Everyone sucks at it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @09:54PM (1 child)
Apparently, children might not have plans which allow them to receive phone calls. If the US didn't have the user pay for incoming calls to mobiles, I guess this wouldn't be such an issue.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Monday August 28 2017, @11:52PM
Even then if the phone is on silent, it would be just as easy to miss phone calls.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @10:01PM
I, and my children feel blessed that you aren't our parent.
(Score: 3, Informative) by vux984 on Monday August 28 2017, @11:48PM
If the child has the phone on silent because they are in class or at a movie or eating dinner with a friend -- then they should be applauded for being polite and respectful.
Then the child then doesn't look at their phone for several hours, thus being ignorant of the message you sent for hours. Perhaps they even left it in their school bag, downstairs with their shoes and then spent the afternoon upstairs chatting/playing games/whatever. And in your house this a punishable offense?
Is the explanation that you are some sort of crazy asshole control freak?
The children must check their device for new instructions every 15 minutes OR ELSE ?
If that is the communication channel you have, then that is the communication channel you use. What does that have to do with the quality of parenting. My kids can receive SMS, and if they're on wifi have a number of other apps they use for messaging. Plus lots of kids don't have phones at all; including apparently yours the minute the battery dies and they fail to respond to you immediately. Are those the best parents or the worst?
I don't know about "everyone" but I do think you're doing it wrong.
What does that achieve? If *I* set my phone to silent going into a movie, I often don't catch it, and miss all messages and calls for hours after the movie, often its mid-morning before I notice.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday August 28 2017, @11:59PM
And you lose any chance of getting to your kid other than physical presence - which is an imposition on child attention much bigger than a simple text message ("your parent wants to see you" instead of "your parent needs you to know this/that").
Somehow this loss of capability is called "good parenting" in your opinion.
Do you care to provide arguments for your position?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by pkrasimirov on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:42AM
> If a child does not respond, ignores you, and then claims ignorance you take the phone away.
To make sure you cannot reach them anymore at all. Right. Doesn't work and doesn't even sounds good.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:31AM
> If a child does not respond, ignores you, and then claims ignorance you take the phone away.
And then they can't ignore you because you can't contact them! Genius!
Do you solve all your problems by cutting off your nose?