By January I was ready to take the computer away from T1.  I had seen these amazing benefits for T2 and T3 and felt that T1 wasn’t quite getting them.

He needed a break!

He was also getting more intense and compulsive about the computer and even at one point asked for some help because he felt like he had so much to do.  But these were all self imposed learning things on the computer.

We finally had a situation that brought it all to a head in the middle of January.   After a good heart to heart with Dad and I, T1 willingly said he was fine with no computer for a month.  So he quit cold turkey.  We went down to 1 computer that we moved to the kitchen and he could only use it for homework.

Benefits immediately

The level of this frantic energy dropped in our home.  Within one week T1 had balanced out.  I was converted to the power of being media free.  He chose to stay computer free for the rest of the school year.  By May he was sometimes playing Flight Simulator on the weekends and doing some research on scouting stuff too.   But it was balanced and only on the weekend.

He was grateful for the change.  He even said I should go to schools and talk to kids about media and how too much can hurt you.  He is the one who inspired me to do this series.

On the scale of media usage of 1 to 10.  10 being non-stop media, 1 being none I would probably now our family at a 3.

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Reducing Media Usage for Kids Series

This series was inspired by my 13 year old.  He said I need to tell people about this, after seeing the benefits in his quality of life over the last few months as we reduced our media usage.

• More Boys = More TV or How we got to become media addicts.
• Our Media Rhythm Before
• Transitioning to Media Free*
• Taking the Final Step – No more computer for T1
• Benefits of Being Media Free*
• Mostly Media Free in the Summer
• 4 Easy Tips to Help You Reduce Media Usage