Watch your kids game with video streaming

We just read an article this morning that made us laugh, cry, and roll our eyes at the same time. The article is titled, “Video streaming lets parents attend kids’ events virtually” and tells about the trend of parents watching their kids’ events (sports, recitals, etc.) via video streaming.

Now we love technology as much as the next family, but this sounds absolutely ridiculous to us.

Instead of going to your kid’s  game, you pay $15 a month so you can watch their game on your computer or mobile device. We can understand if once in a while you’re out of town on a business trip when your child has an event that you’ll miss and connecting via video streaming lets you catch some of the action.

But if you’re paying a monthly service, that tells us that this is a regular occurrence for you rather than an exception. And that’s sad.

Nothing can compare to actually being there with your child when they make a run, score a goal, beat their record lap time, or nail the music piece at the recital. When they can turn and see the smile on your face and the gleam in your eye or hear your cheer from the sideline – that support is unmeasurable.

This trend also goes contrary to what we’re trying to teach our kids on a regular basis – “Wherever you are, be there.” Meaning that you should focus on what you’re doing in the moment your doing it and on who you’re with at the time. Be there both physically and mentally. If you’re with someone, give them your attention (not constantly texting others or having your ears full of headphones/earbuds). If you’re working on a project, give it your attention.

We were happy to read that the article also contains tips from Parenting Weekly about taking time to bond with your children by giving them your undivided attention “when home, playing games, having meaningful conversations and eating dinner together as a family.”

We can only imagine watching your kids play board games via video streaming. Set up a little webcam over your game table and then pull up the video feed on a computer or mobile device and watch the game.

Somehow we just don’t see the bonding happening there.

Scrap the webcam but keep the game table set up with a stack of games nearby that you can pull out when you’ve got a few minutes to play with your kids. It doesn’t take long, it just takes time.