Gabbu Singh Diaries 7 | The Ipad Rehab.

It was almost 2 years back that I ordered the new Ipad Air 2 with ‘Avyaan’s Ipad’ engraved on it. He was 18 months old then and the idea behind ordering the latest tablet was to introduce him to the world of rhymes and supposedly educational videos for the toddlers. So much for being a good parent ensuring an early all-round development for his beloved kid. And it wasn’t long that he became self-sufficient in operating the device and also having his clear favorites.

The Ipad went on for hours now and the entire household kept buzzing with the nursery rhymes. And as he started recognizing those rhymes, his elated reactions, giggles and excitement towards them made us jump in joy too. So much so that these rhymes started to play in our subconscious mind too. Being in office, I suddenly started humming ‘Old MacDonald had a farm…’, while working out in the gym, out of nowhere I found myself mumbling ‘Mary had a little lamb…’ and the bathroom singing soon changed from ‘London Thumkda’ to ‘London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down…’. It was a rampage J.

But very soon he got bored of these rhymes and graduated to being a superhero, watching Spider-man, Superman, Batman, Captain America, Hulk and Co. And thanks to you tube that throws all kinds of suggestions while you are watching something,  not all what he watched was apt for his age, as it ranged from the vulgar, violent and obscene versions of superheroes doing all kind of things. Gradually, it started to show up in his behavior as well. He started jumping anywhere and everywhere like one of those superheroes, he was up to do ‘Dishoom’ to us if we did anything to his disliking and he even talked about the Hulks and Captain Americas of his world while he was asleep.

And it wasn’t long that it became an addiction to him. He wanted it all the time, so if we wanted him to have his meals switching on the Ipad became as essential as having salt in the food. If we are dining out somewhere he should have the screen on, for us to have a quiet dinner and likewise on lot of other things. To an extent, that he almost went in a state of trance when the Ipad was on and we could make him do anything and everything in that state. We did try a lot to cut down on his addictive habits but the resistance that we faced (from him) coupled with the convenience that switching on the Ipad gave us, made it all the more difficult.

But it was high time this menace had to be dealt with. So it was decided that his beloved Ipad had to be taken off in one go, there is no such thing like gradually pulling him out of this addiction. So one fine day it was decided that he will be told that if you watch Ipad you will turn into a skeleton (the very skeleton which his superheroes fight against). And on being told so he reluctantly agreed to not touch his Ipad, though he kept pestering us to let him watch his favorite videos but the mere mention of the ‘skeleton’ scare kept him at bay. We agreed to continue this for 21 days, as doing anything  consecutively for 21 days turns it into a habit. And its almost 2 months now that he hasn’t touched the Ipad or has asked for it. Though it can be argued that scaring him and getting him out of it wasn’t the best way to do it but in the hindsight I believe the final outcome outweighed the manner in which it was executed. In a sense, the rehab has been successfully executed, to an extent that even I am not allowed to surf on the Ipad, as he fears that his dad will turn into a skeleton by doing so J.

So what does he do now? He still watches his superheroes but these are new super heroes who don’t do those vulgar and unwanted things. His new-found super heroes are Hanumanji, Ganeshji, Shivji and Ramji, so much for his and his dad’s love for mythology. But even that is being done in a very guarded way, so that he watches it for a maximum of 1 hour and that too on TV. Rest of the time he is busy playing around with his toys or painting,  or reading his story books. And the real joy lies in seeing him transform from ‘HULK SMASHHH’ to ‘JAI SHREE RAM’ J.

--

kin…