Simple Summer Media Detox Rules
Are you tired of hearing that your littles are bored? Does your toddler or preschooler constantly ask to “watch a show”? Maybe it is time for a TV detox. When the warm weather comes back to Michigan, one of the first things that we do is implement some media detox rules like these.
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Why we decided we needed a social media detox
We’d been talking about it for a couple of weeks. Ben and I were both tired of hearing “can we watch cartoons?” first thing in the morning. During pregnancy with number three and the first four to five months postpartum, it was nice to be able to have the boys get up by themselves and turn on a show while they waited for me to get up and get them breakfast. Seth would usually watch PBS shows for as long as I would sleep and when Cameron got tired of sitting he would play with his tractors and trucks pretty quietly.
But now it was time to scale back on TV and other electronic media {this means my phone a well}. We needed an electronic device and social media detox.
It was summer and we didn’t need to be glued to screens all day. I wanted the boys to use their imagination, I wanted them to spend time in the sun, climbing trees and getting dirty.
I needed an electronic/social media detox, because I caught myself too many times telling the boys to “wait just a minute, let me finish this….”, “I’ll look in a minute…” etc. and not being present with them. I wasn’t paying attention to what they were doing or what they were saying.
And I was also finding myself playing on my phone too much at night when Ben was home, so I was going to do a detox as well. I was taking a break from Facebook and replying to comments here. I wanted to be present with my family. I wanted to be intentional with the time that I have with them.
Our Electronic/Social Media Detox Rules
After a bit of discussion Ben and I came up with some rules for our media detox. Wefollowed these for one week just to see what happened. And then another week. And then it ended up being most of the summer that these rules were in place. It was great!
So here are the guidelines that we used for our media detox:
- no cartoons in the morning
- half hour of screen time later in the day, this is at momma’s discretion, it may not happen every day
- one family movie night per week
- limited amounts of screen time available for rainy days
- rules are not enforced when we are out
Momma’s Phone Rules:
- one hour in the morning after the house is cleaned and our summer school completed- this is to check email, do blog things on the Facebook page, play on Instagram and Pinterest
- checks allowed while the baby nurses but not extended after he is done
- one hour later in the afternoon
I asked some momma friends for their TV/electronic device detox experiences or tips and with their permission I’m sharing those with you. 🙂
From Ai at Less to More “it’s nice to give our eyes a break from the screen and spend some good quality family time that encourage a little more interaction than passing the giant tub of popcorn to the next person.” You can find Ai on Facebook at Less to More.
Tarynn from Mama by Fire had her family go for an entire week with no screen time. You can read about what activities she chose to do with her children here and her final thoughts on their screen free week here.
Alana gave this suggestion: “I‘ve gone thru periods of reduction when needed. Our default is cartoons/ iPad in the morning as we are easing into the day. When we’ve needed to cut back, I’ve set up invitations to play the night before or had a plan first thing in the morning, like having puzzles out, everything needed for a craft.” And she also has a great post here about leaving the phone behind and enjoying the moment. And in this post she shares 7 ways to for us as mommas to hit the reset button.
Jill shares about the time that she tried to completely unplug her family. It wasn’t what she expected.
And finally Kate shares about raising kids who aren’t glued to screens.
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