Many of you have asked me how our Tech Free project is going, so I thought I’d give you an update. Three months ago we instituted the rule of no technology on the weekdays and were met with fierce opposition from our children. You can read their devious plans to sabotage our rule here. But now, one quarter into the new initiative, everybody has pretty well accepted no tech on the weekdays as a lifestyle. But a few things have changed . . .
- Our lives are less noisy. This isn’t because my family isn’t still the loudest on the street. Seriously. Ask the neighbors. But now the sources of the noise are out of human mouths and not voices coming at us from all our devices. And somehow it feels like the volume has been turned down.
2. We are racking up library fines. We’ve never been great at turning our books in on time, and now that we are reading more, those charges are adding up! A small price to pay for more bookworms in the house.
3. We take more baths. This is because we are getting far dirtier than ever before. The kids are outside until dark most nights, and though the longer days have something to do with that, the lack of entertainment from a device is the biggest motivator to go play.
4. Sibling fighting levels have remained exactly the same. In quantity, yes. But the topics of their arguments have shifted from who gets to choose the next show to who cheated in the family Monopoly tournament. I’ll take those fights any day.
5. Weekend priorities have shifted. The kids are allowed to have all their devices with very few restrictions on the weekends, but honestly, they’re not spending hours in front of the screen. Henry and Graham still play their video games, Harper watches a movie, and Maddox surfs funny vids on YouTube, but after an hour or two, everybody gets back to the business of play.
I can’t decide if I’m going to keep my tech rule over the summer or allow more flexibility. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. What are your summer “rules” for tech?
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