Friday, 25 July 2008
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Not So Unplugged
by Mama FoxYesterday morning I was up before 6am because a baby head butted me in the nose, hard. So I got 2 hours of computer time before the boys woke up. I figured I earned that much. I posted a blog about my awful night the day before (more on that later) then did a bit of message board browsing. At 8am I unplugged, took a shower and we started our day.
At 1pm Dolly hits. (Well just the edges of the tropical storm hit us, nothing major but we really needed the rain.) Fox3 and Fox2 were sound asleep so Fox1 and I sat on the porch and discussed rain and the water cycle. After it died down a bit, I said "what the heck, it's for school anyway" and pull out Papa Fox's laptop to find an animation of the water cycle. That kept Fox1's attention for about 20 minutes.
I turned it off and got back to work in the kitchen. I have cinnamon bread in the bread machine (minus the raisins because of Fox2's intolerance/allergy) and a pan of oat cereal bars cooling off. Some glass jars are soaking in the sink so I can wash them out and pull off labels for reusing/recycling. Then because of the night before, I wanted to do a bit of research. I decided that I had been unplugged enough for the day.
This last month of unplugged days had given me new appreciation for the technology we have today. It's been hard, very hard at times but I also had some fun time with the kids I may not have had. I am saying good bye to Unplugged Thursdays but may keep one day a month to reconnecting as a family without the electronics. Just once a week isn't realistic for us. It was good times while it lasted.
How about for your family? How realistic would it be to unplug the TV and the computer on a regular basis?
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Comments (8)
I try hard to keep my kids 'technology' under control. We set limits on all of it in an attempt to keep it reasonable. There are days that go well...and then there are days that don't so much. I do try to do an 'unplugged' day, but it isn't always once a week. As long as it doesn't get ridiculous, I try not to worry about it too much. But we are trying to slowly cut back (can't cut them off cold turkey) and have just started a 'program' where they have to earn their video game time with good behavior and extra chores...where it used to be that they got x amount of time and it could get taken away if they were poorly behaved. We'll see how that works.
Since I work from home, it's impossible to have unplugged days. I try sometimes to at least "unplug" the tv, but it's the only thing that keeps Baby Koala entertained if I'm busy with work or even house chores... so it's been difficult to do that as well. There are many days when I personally don't watch any tv, but I think my daughter gets at least 30 min a day, usually 1 hour.
As your kids get older, it'll probably be even harder, since they really will need the computer for learning (everything is so technical these days!)... although, perhaps with homeschooling it's different? I'd love to hear more about homeschooling in general!
Since my husband is a computer technician/programmer/jack of all trades, it would be kind of unrealistic for us to unplug this. I do need to take a leaf out of your book and unplug the television. I think it's easier for me to leave it on because my son is only 7 1/2 months old and doesn't pay any attention to it; he likes to explore his play area by himself while I watch him (and the tv). I do try to monitor how much time I spend in front of it and do my best to limit it to his naptimes, but seeing as we can't have a full on conversation together, it sometimes is nice to have a little background noise.
The hardest part for us would be to turn off our cell phones. Especially with Tim's job. We haven't even plugged in the TV since we moved in April...the cord is still hanging down infront of the screen even. lol. We watch movies on the computers or go online most often...mostly just for email, social interaction (me), and video games (Tim). We want to go camping for an "unplugged" weekend sometime soon, but matching up our work schedules has just been impossible.
we don't have a tv. when we got married we wanted the 1st year "to ourselves" more or less. and then we figured that we don't watch that much tv anyway and whatever we wanted to watch was available online if we wanted to watch it whenever we wanted. i don't think we'll be getting a tv anytime soon. i can't even remember the last time we watched a dvd. the laptop is on quite often to check email which we get a lot of and to videochat with relatives.
@mamajoyjoy@xanga - Awesome! I don't think as a family we could go completely TV free but I know I can. I hardly watch it at all.
I barely watch tv, but I like having my radio playing. I find that being on the computer takes up a lot of my time though, and I have to make myself get off and do what I need to do. I'd like to unplug it more often to break the addiction!
When I was growing up my father never allowed for TV. Just the radio and books. TONS of books. I thank him for my love of reading and for the fact that this passion has been passed on to my daughter who is only 18 months but since I know her all she wants is books. She has to sleep with one and she has one on her at all times.
Being unplugged is not anything I had given any thought to. As a matter a fact as I was reading your post I was wondering what you meant by "unplugged." Now you have my curiosity peaked. When did you start this if you don't mind my asking? Has it been difficult? What did you unplug?