It’s a frequent problem for today’s adolescents: If you’re nearing the limit of the time your parents have put on your electronic device and you want to persuade them to give you more, what’s the best way to go about it? Cajole? Beg? Make a reasoned argument? Throw a tantrum?
Well, if you’re my daughter, you use the medium of verse.
Three minutes before her phone time was up, a few nights ago, I was texted this stanza:
Time is running slowly down,
The hourglass fallen, never found,
I cry for help, yet no-one hears,
‘No time!’ I say, but to deaf ears.
Pretty good for a completely impromptu poem, isn’t it? And, yes, I did give her more time. I’m soft-hearted anyway, but, really, who could resist that foray into poetry?
Please don’t apprise my kids of this approach …
I am impressed. Anybody can make something that rhymes, but hers scans as well. It’s pretty rare I find a student who even understands what meter is, let alone is able to write iambic tetrameter.
Poetic licence? 😉
In taking the time to compose a poem that both rhymes and scans, your brilliant daughter has also used up some of her screen time performing creative mental labor. That sacrifice should be rewarded, since the whole point of the screen time limit is to keep her from just passively consuming information.
That’s one way to do it!