I just received my 3 kiddos back from sleep-away camp where they were unplugged and fancy free for a whole month.
I know that many of you can relate with the desire for your kids to kick it old school, doing stuff like…
Talking, playing and interacting with real people in real life.
In many ways, this new technological existence is a science experiment when it comes to our kid’s developing brains.
This gnawing desire for more unplugged family time is on my mind as we make the most of our time together throughout the rest of the summer and beyond.
We are leaving for a 2 week family vacay out of the country.
I would like it to be predominantly tech-free.
I sent letters to camp attempting to plead my tech-free case in anticipation of my 3 screen lovers arrival home.
We have had the conversation as a family.
It went well.
The goal is to have a 90% unplugged vacation.
I know there will be some challenging moments for all of us where the desire to check out on screens will be super tempting.
We are all human.
We may backslide at times.
There may be some negotiating and re-visioning while we’re there.
However, I’m hopeful that we will stick to the plan.
“Officially”, we have limited time left with Alec (18) under our roof, since he leaves for college in a little over a month.
Cory (10) keeps having scary nightmares where Alec dies…not to be dramatic but college represents a big transition for all of us apparently.
Transitions are often described as a death of the former identity and a rebirth of the new you.
For Cory, his way of dealing with his brother leaving is a subconscious release while he sleeps.
I know his little brother self is sad about his big bro not sleeping across the hall from him each night amongst many other things he will miss about Alec.
It is all Cory has ever known during his 10 years of life.
Cory’s dreams represent the importance of making the most of our time together right now because a big change is upon us.
When we are all “nocializing” (faces in our screens) rather than socializing with each other, we miss out on connecting with the people we love the most and making valuable memories.
Do you feel like your kids are more connected to their screens than they are to you more often than not?
Do you have guilt surrounding the amount of time you guys spend checking Facebook/Minecraft/Candycrush/Instagram?
