Notes from "No-Tech" Week

About halfway through the summer, I found that my children were addicted to all things electronic. I began to get concerned when it was time to leave for the park (one of Sam's favorite places) and he cried, " I don't want to go outside! I am playing my (video) game!"

Clearly it was time to do something drastic. Keith and I tossed around lots of ideas. We even instituted a token system---each child got 2 tokens a day for video games or TV. For whatever reason, that did not work for us.

So, after several failed attempts, I found the solution at Barnes and Noble in the Berenstain Bear section. I loved these books as a kid! And actually, I was looking for the one about the dentist. Sam has a dentist appointment soon and he is scared of the dentist, so I thought it might help. Either way, during my search I found The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV. In the book, Mama Bear decides the cubs are watching too much TV and they take a whole week off from television. PERFECT!

I bought the book, along with The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food (which is a whole different story), and off we went. We read it to the boys for a couple of days and declared that the upcoming Monday would begin the Miller family "No Tech Week"--- that's right...no video games...no computer....and no TV.

I quickly realized that I had to be prepared, so Sam, my most reluctant participant, and I made a list of 40 fun things that don't require technology. We made him a bowl of 40 numbers and everyday, he drew 6 numbers that determined our 6 activities for the day.

It definitely took a few days for the boys to get used to the idea. But all in all, they did really well. So here's what I learned from "no tech week:"

• It is WAY easier to allow the TV or computer to babysit your children than it is to actually parent them. Now don't get me wrong, our kids did not watch TV all day before last week, but it did buy me a few blocks of time during the day to get stuff done. That said, I accomplished very little last week on my list of things to do. But that's okay.
• Never schedule "no-tech" week during the rainy season....who knew that Austin would finally get rain? That certainly did complicate things, especially when a much anticipated trip to the pool got rained out....TWICE!
• The "no-tech" life is VERY INTERACTIVE. On one hand, I made some amazing memories with my kids last week. We had a blast. On the other hand, I was completely worthless by the time Keith came home from work.
• Kids will adapt to just about anything. I was really worried about how they would do...but in the end, the kids accepted that "it was what it was." There "was" no TV and they would have to work around it.

Our solution: Everything in moderation...Now at our house, there is EXTREME moderation compared to before. The kids each get 30 minutes of TV time and 30 minutes of computer/video game time a day. After that, everything turns off.

Now I know some of you "perfect mommies" are thinking, "my kids have never watched TV." Good for you...it wasn't that easy for us....and I am sure there will always be compromises and readjustments along the way. For example, Friday night it was pouring down rain. So when the pool thing fell through, again...we defaulted to movie night. And since Happy Feet is longer than 30 minutes.... : )

But to our "digitally starved" children, you would have thought it was Christmas morning .