As your children become older you’ll be faced with a new set of etiquette issues to deal with for the holidays.  If your children are tweens then chances are they’ve mastered using a napkin and selecting the proper utensil.  But that doesn’t mean that you can sit back on your high heels and coast.  Modern technology has brought an entire new plethora of situations to navigate.

Most technology comes with a generational gap and we need to be sensitive to how the different generations perceive the technology.  For example my niece who is in college sees nothing wrong with [simultaneously] being on the computer, texting friends and having a conversation with her favorite aunt (moi).  It drives me nuts!!  So with all the social gatherings happening during the holidays, I thought it worth while to offer a few practical tips about best behavior involving cell phones, other electronic devices such as DS and Ipods. We need to help our tween children understand how the technology makes other people feel.  This is especially important when we’re visiting grandma or great aunt Josephine.

I’m going to go out on a limb and state [quite emphatically] that texting, playing on a DS or listening to an Ipod while in social gatherings is rude.  That basically applies to any device that competes or distracts us from interacting with the people around us. After all, we get together during the holidays because we want to talk to our loved ones.  There is a powerful connection that happens when we are with people.  Why would we want to diminish that connection?  Granted our children may be “bored” visiting the relatives but they still need to learn how to interact with them.

I’ve found that the easiest and fastest way to avoid the isolationist behavior is to remove the temptation.  I recommend leaving the phone [insert: DS or Ipod] at home or in the car if it isn’t practical to leave it at home.  If you live in a city and use public transportation simply leave the device in a coat pocket when you take off the coat.  My oldest daughter is so attached to her DS that she goes through withdrawal when it isn’t around.  Unfortunately, I’ve found that playing on the DS reduces her interaction with others to the point that I’ve had to limit the amount of time that she can play on it.  We’ve reach a balancing act whereby she is allowed to play with her DS in the car but once we arrive at the destination it stays in the car.  This prevents me from having to remind her to turn it off when we are in a group setting.

Then again, you could always let the batteries run out and mysteriously “forget” to bring the recharger…hmmmm

Contributed by Chief Princess Mom