Page 204 - Resources and Support for the Online Educator

Chapter 7 • Household Guidelines

Without household guidelines solution:

You know he enjoys blowing things up but are concerned about his health
and the amount of destruction he’s causing. Add to that the social media layer
and the fact that his “Blow Up Boy” channel is now popular, and you face
an almost insurmountable scenario. Ultimately, you tell him to remove the
channel and to stop blowing things up, which cause him to have a fit of rage
about the fact you’ve taken away his creative outlet.

With household guidelines solution:
There’s a rule in place about being respectful of your own and others’ personal
property. Knowing this and your son’s need to be hands-on and share, you
encourage your son to create a Do-It-Yourself channel where he takes common
items and “remixes” them into something cool and useful. His “DIY Boy”
channel takes off. Your agreed-upon rule about “oversharing” also kicks in
here, and he decides to post a show weekly that is well-produced and planned.

This is obviously an extreme scenario, but one thing I’ll mention now is that
all the scenarios I’ve listed in this chapter are loosely based on things I’ve
actually encountered. Compared to our childhood, kids today can easily be
published and viewable to the entire world via a blog, YouTube channel, or
other means. Having a voice and confidence in their work can be a powerful
learning mechanism if done for good rather than destruction, as in this
scenario. What might start out as a cute kid blowing up stuffed animals with
firecrackers can quickly go downhill. Aided with an online audience, it almost
becomes addicting to the child as well, which creates another set of challenges
to overcome as a parent trying to steer him in a more positive direction.
This scenario also highlights the fact that whatever rules or guidelines you put
in place, they shouldn’t be stagnant. If you created household guidelines before
little Johnny became obsessed with explosives, then you should add or amend
the guidelines when you notice this becoming a problem so he has some say in
what is right and what is wrong.

Again, I cannot stress enough the importance in creating these guidelines
ahead of time and also inviting your child to help you create them. With his
input, you might decide that some rules like “Thou shalt not destroy property”
need to exist. You might also decide that rules like “We only post positive

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