Electronics-Free Week

This past week we went electronics-free, in part to prove to the kids (and to ourselves) that such a thing can be done, and also to try to reorganize and restart our regulation of electronics use. To be honest, it wasn't a complete blackout. I checked my mail every couple days just to make there wasn't something going on that we needed to know about (there wasn't), and when the weather took a nasty turn here mid-week, we watched the news for updates. We also used our phones. So I guess it would be more accurate to say that we had a computer game-playing, Facebook-checking, Wii-playing, and recreational TV-watching -free week, but that's awkward to say, and it seems to cause punctuation problems as well, so "Electronics-free" week just works better.

When Drew told one of his friends in the neighborhood what we were doing, his friend replied incredulously, "No lights?!" We did actually keep the electricity on, of course, but I have to admit that for the first couple of days the kids acted like we were doing something just as dramatic. I'd like to say that they didn't miss it at all, but the reality is that they had some withdrawal symptoms, and, at first, asked me about every fifteen minutes if I was positively sure they couldn't watch or play. But they got over it, and eventually found their own answers to to the pressing question of "What are we going to do?"

For instance, one might

read to siblings (This isn't staged. It's an honest-to-goodness warm fuzzy moment.),

take a nap,

play a game (or at least, pull out the game and play with the pieces),

explore a park,

or just enjoy a sunny day! Ok, ok. Scarlett's week wasn't really affected by the change. I just included this because she's cute!

And actually, they all probably would have done most of these things anyway. Their days were already varied, with plenty of reading and outdoor play. But removing the possibility of glowing screens did encourage more periods of quiet and family time, and, so that I'm not just knocking the kids here, gave me chance to reevaluate what the necessity of being "connected" all the time. Our world kept turning just fine without knowing what was going with everyone and everything in every corner of the outside world, and, even more humbling, no one suffered even a little by not knowing what was going with us on a daily basis.

This weekend we lifted the ban, but are doing so gradually, hoping not to lose a healthy sense of perspective on those glowing screens.