More than double

I feel like a fool for providing a reward offer for my kids if they could keep their mobile phone usage under 2 hours daily. A pure reward system, all for their gain and nothing to lose.

For the record, the 2 hours daily average is not a number from thin air, my daily average is 30 minutes or less for more than a year running now. Figured that most people probably cannot be like me so gave a generous 4x multiplier, also factored in that they have around 8 hours of useful time after school, spending 25% of that on the phone is already plenty.

Rather they spend the time on their studies or some other form of entertainment really, but what to do, phubber pandemic is real and deteriorating the society. Phone addiction is serious issue but way too many willingly embrace the rot.

But I digress. Anyway, to me, the MYR1000 reward is money well spent if the kids developed their self-discipline, self-control, and time management. All useful skills that will benefit their whole lives.

What did they do instead? They train their deceit and dishonesty on a daily basis, by cheating, manipulating the screen time, excluding frequently used apps and games, turning off the screen time tracking apps, et cetera.

And showed me the fake screen time week after week without shame or guilt.

Well, let's just say parents are not the fools the kids think they are, and truth always prevails. So based on last week's fake and real data, my kids actual usage were 2x and 2.7x what they showed me.

Needless to say that the reward offer is now cancelled. The disappointment is real. Massive and hurtful.

Other |sane side| category entries.