I blogged about how we decided as a family to be Mostly Media Free for the summer. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out.
More work for me – but more fun too!
Well, it was great. I will admit, it was more work for me. I played more games with T3 this summer than I probably ever had before. At first I wasn’t sure how come we were playing so many games, but then I realized, last summer I had him watch a show when he was “bothering me” This summer I did less blogging and work stuff and more playing. It was great!
The big boys were good about not doing their media time (1 hour a day) when T3 was around. So it worked out really well. I will say I love Net Nanny, it is easy to put time limits on computer usage and it kicks them off, instead of me telling them to get off.
One week of Media Overload
We spent a week at the cousins house and I think they got more media in that week then they had for the whole summer, maybe even the whole year! But when you have 9 kids 14 and under in one house, media certainly helps at times.
That week was full of hikes, playing outside and board games too.
I will say it reinforced my desire to be media free, especially for T3. The littler the kid, the more effected they are by media. He was grumpy and whiny and just not as sweet when he was overloaded with media.
Media Free Again Now that School Started
The boys are now media free Mon-Friday. T1 is media free Sunday by choice, unless we watch a church video for a family activity. T1 doesn’t really embrace the media free during the week and wants exceptions. We are working that out. He is almost 14 and does things pretty moderately right now. Computer still only in kitchen, he will sometimes watch a show with DH at night.
Maybe a completely Media Free Holiday?
This has inspired me to try to have December completely media free, even for DH and I. (excluding work) I have mentioned it to the boys. They are pondering. They wondered about Christmas movies we traditionally watch, I thought that would be fine to do. But I think it would be liberating to have a media free holiday. More game playing and Christmas Caroling? We shall see.
