screen free

It’s official. I hate the words: I’m BORED.

I mean, I hated those words long before we went a week without screens sucking the life out of us, but I hate it even more now. We don’t want our kids to be bored. We want them to be entertained and even better, to be doing something worthwhile. We want them to make the most out of their childhood. And we don’t want to be living life for them, but since screens have arrived on the scene, playtime doesn’t seem to come naturally anymore. So we have to keep pushing for it.

So when the kids came to me with the idea of doing a lemonade stand, I was all for it:

I think they forgot about their boredom for the entire afternoon and wound up having a great time, celebrating these final days of summer.

As of today, I’m trying to get everyone to substitute the word bored with free time. It just sounds better, like the start of a solution, instead of the end of ambition: Entertain me, I’m bored. Yikes!

This is hard to commit to, even so. I’d love for this to be our new ground zero. Letting the kids free range with screens as they please makes parenting a snap because you can get away with putting in less effort. I hate admitting that, but it’s true. When you pull the plug on screen time, you’re forced to join in and work harder at engagement. There’s a lot of together time–a lot of active time–and we all feel way more wiped out by sundown than we ever have. And it’s not always fun or easy–but we try and that’s what counts.

I don’t know how long the kids are going to stick with it, but with school looming just around the corner, I have high hopes that it will have at least some longevity at our house.

One day at a time….

So-Called Mom