I kind of feel like this book is gonna make me rethink a lot of classes that I had in high school and college with psychology and sociology. Fundamentally, the biggest revelation to this book that other areas don’t address is specifically about the requirements of a growing person and what they need developmentally to look forward to a long content lifestyle.

I have a 12-year-old, so all of this is speaking directly to me. I feel that I’m right at the edge of being too late to be able to implement any of this. Fortunately, we feel we have made somewhat good decisions up to this point, and in fact, those have been reinforced with some of the things the book says particularly about the amount of unsupervised screen time and the types screen time that they get a Standard video game being completely different from massive multiplayer online game.

Earlier today at conflict happened with my child and his cousins who were here to visit one is six months older and the other is six months younger than he is they were outside playing and the other two decided to go out on the paddleboard while my child didn’t realize that’s what they were doing and pouted and figured out why they didn’t wanna play with him. He got upset. They talked about it when they got back and they resolved their issues, the part that we don’t talk about when we talk about screens ruining the childhood it isn’t about screens taking away their entertainment. Instead, it is about screens, taking away their ability to have appropriate interpersonal relationships.

Kids who spend too much of their time in interactive video games and online places have a more limited ability to understand the subtleties of social cues. What one person’s facial expressions mean versus the words they are saying these are all the pieces of the puzzle that we take for granted that kids growing up in today’s digital era or better yet connected because they don’t have face-to-face play.

It is both terrifying and fascinating watching my child grow up in the experiences that he chooses to engage with at times and filled with so much hopefulness and levity, and then other times when he chooses to do things that overall have a negative impact on his attitude in life, such a spinning too much time on a screen And those are difficult to deal with, but I think largely it is curiosity to watch somebody go through many of the same struggles and learning opportunities that you went through when you were their age fascinating when you know you could just help them make it easier, but they do not Become a better more well-rounded person if they don’t struggle through those.

Life is weird and wonderful and amazing and painful and every emotion that we possibly can feel it is all those things and that is what makes it such a wonderful ride.

Oh don’t worry I’m sure I will be back with more thoughts on this book. Maybe even today.