Take your child out of wifi coverage

I have a habit of staying up at night working, and before going to bed or going to the children’s room. Just gently pull the blanket over the children’s chest, adjust the sleeping position. And then just stood there and watched them lazily in their sleep after a day of studying online, watching youtube, joking around with the whole family. When sleeping, every child is very cute. Why are they so ‘disturbed’ when awake? Does exposure to computers and television lead to the ‘loneliness, coldness, and madness’ of the children in their own beloved home, with their parents and youngest brother?

Have to drag them somewhere. This thought made me turn on my computer, go find a place where there is no wifi signal…

I fantasize about a place that makes the kids extremely happy and forgets about the rough computer screen, the clips that parents consider ‘innocuous’ on youtube but to them are extremely attractive.

The story of a family, perhaps also the ‘obsession’ and desire of many families in the past few years of continuously adapting to the epidemic. Obsessed with children’s exposure to computers too much. Normally, learning directly in class, only weekends are allowed to touch the keyboard, screen or youtube on TV.

Online learning, from 1st graders to those about to go to college, each child owns a computer for a short time. Studying is little, but studying while accessing the internet to watch, listen, and read miscellaneous is a lot. Then the game, the age of being eager to play, is curious. Now it is free to self-manipulate on the cyberspace, which is full of traps set up. Then from the way of speaking and acting, all of them are carried online into family life. The temperament from the child, to the adult, becomes grumpy, irritable, selfish, and lazy to the extent that some mothers are really shocked when their children chat with words that can only be heard when someone is arguing. …

It’s hard to blame the kids, but how to get them out of this ‘short-term quagmire’? And the desire to pull them away from the computer screen, to bring them to places where ‘natural vitamins’ are standing in the minds of every parent on the weekend.

I want to take them to places outside the wifi coverage, in the windy, grassy areas.

And find out for yourself that there is an extremely peaceful steppe just 150 km from Hanoi. After the first chat, the wife agreed immediately. Then there are 3 other families, in which every family has children who hug computers and TVs all day. All agreed immediately.

The dinner before leaving, instead of two children blaming each other like every day, was filled with information about tomorrow’s trip: Let’s get up early instead of sleeping until close to the online class; who will put on the travel suits deep in the corner of the closet instead of the rumpled blazers in front of the classroom camera screen; the immense steppe, the green grass to the horizon instead of the tiny landscapes in the television… Then the golden sun, the light wind, the clouds, the cool stream, the scent of the grass, the green delicious, refreshing, grilled meat on endless grass…

They’re all ‘dressing up’ and no one notices their parents floating in their laps. Isn’t it fun, just pulling the children out of the study table, dissolving into nature, it’s so easy, but can’t do it for a long time?

More than 2 hours drive from Hanoi, a beautiful steppe with green meadows, herds of wild horses moving around. Exploding, surprised, melted. That is not only the feeling of children who rarely leave the apartment lobby in the 2 years of covid, but also the overwhelming level of parents who also rarely fly, because they work hard while looking after their children and working online.

Tent is set up. Baked goods are marinated immediately. It’s been a long time since the kids were excited to ‘get together’ with the adults. The aroma of flaming beef mingled with the smell of plants and flowers, the trail of smoke from the coal stove gradually melted into the green immensity…

Photo: Hung Vi

No more irritation, no more fighting over the TV remote. It’s been a long time, it’s been a long time since I saw children smiling and laughing at the right age in the midst of nature. Crispy laughter then melted into the clouds and wind, blending into the murmuring stream. The normal adult at home still eats little by little with her, now I quietly watch her give her favorite milk carton to the ‘pretty 3rd grade girl’ accompanying the group, just because she is not used to other milk. Then they ran out to play with the cows, pointed at each one, and put on the menu: ‘this one is grilled’, ‘this one is boiled’… The shouts echoed in every corner of the limestone mountains next to them.

So beautiful, and so peaceful, why can’t it attract children who have put their feet under the table for the past 2 years, eyes looking at the screen, hands clattering on the keyboard, inanimate?

Two days, compared to the whole time when children hug computers to learn online is too short a time. But it is a trip full of joy, filled with emotions and saved in young hearts miraculous experiences with nature. And for parents, the story of pulling their children out of the coverage of the wifi signal, to a place where there are only clouds and wind in the endless grassland, has been an unexpected success…

Thuy Du