Kids are learning to text before they can tie their shoes.
An Australian study of 2,200 moms with internet access and kids ages two to five suggests that little ones are becoming tech literate before learning basic life skills. The survey found that in countries including the US, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Japan:
- More small children could play a basic computer game (58 percent) than ride a bike (43 percent).
- More young kids could work a smartphone app (19 percent) than tie their shoelaces (9 percent).
- More little ones can open a web browser (25 percent) than swim (20 percent).
“Technology has changed what it means to be a parent raising children today — these children are growing up in an environment that would be unrecognizable to their parents,” wrote an author of the study conducted by online security company AVG Technologies. “You want kids to be computer literate, but how much is too much?”
Research suggests that the general trend of living far away from extended family, and working parents struggling to juggle providing for their kids with spending time with them, has led to outsourcing more traditional parenting roles.
And so free shoe-tying classes have popped up around Brisbane, Australia, to help kids ages 5- to 8-years-old learn to lace up their own kicks. In the US, Nordstrom stores also often offer free shoe-lacing clinics for kids in their children’s departments.
But some busy moms and dads are also spending big bucks to outsource parenting duties like potty training ($2,000 for nine hours, or up to $3,000 for two days at NYC Potty Training), sleep training ($300-$500 with the Baby Sleep Whisperer) and table manners ($200 at Socialsklz).