miriam

I wanted to share something that has helped me connect with my daughter's interests a bit better. My daughter (12.9) loves her PC and does all kinds of things on it including listening to music, watching YouTube, doing "repaints" of anime characters with the picture editing program (self taught) and making music videos with pictures she makes or collects on the internet. I don't limit her time on the computer at all, but have felt that it is difficult to understand what she is doing all day because the computer she prefers is in an upstairs room and she likes to keep the door closed because she likes to role play and sing and dance without anyone watching.

The problem for me is that she spends so much of her day on the computer in this room and it is difficult to connect with her when she's in a room with the door closed. I will often come in to see what's she'd up to, give her food or talk to her about something and frequently I'll watch something with her, but it is awkward to pull up a chair at the desk to watch.

The other day I got a cord that allows me to connect my tv to my laptop because I wanted to watch stuff from Netflix via my laptop on the large tv screen so that I could sew and watch tv at the same time. When my daughter came downstairs to the room where we have our one tv for our nightly tv and popcorn time, I showed her what I could do and we started watching her favorite YouTube channels on the big screen. It was so nice to be able to see the things she enjoys in a relaxed setting together.