Technology Takeaway

This is the face of an unhappy teenager when you take his electronics away and I mean all his electronics!  No cell phone, no television, no portable gaming system, nothing that plugs in or uses batteries.  You see, my children, like many children have lots of electronic things to occupy their time.  It keeps them quiet on long car rides and to be perfectly honest, it keeps them from fighting with each other.  Many times it is preferable to hear the beeping or clicking of keys then it is to hear "he's breathing on me!"

I remember summers outside, putting on plays and generally playing until our parents called us in at when the sun went down.  My children and their friends think summer is time to get on Facebook, or play video games with their friends (which nowadays does not require them to leave the comfort of their own couch). How can they have a great summer break if all they do is play on their electronics?  There is so much to see, and do and create, but not if the majority of your time is spent sleeping in and plugged in.

 I'm all for technology and all the wonderful things that it allows us to do (like this blog), but I think my kids have spent way to much time in their devices and not enough time outside or interacting with real live people.  So, being the awful parent that my children currently think I am, I have instituted electronic free days.  It has not been well received by the children.  On electronic free days my children are now forced to read paper books, go outside and make up creative ways to fill up their hours.  Just for fun, sometimes I call electronic free hours to force the kids to come up for air and participate in the world around them.  The younger kids seem to be dealing with this better than the older kids.  The older kids are much more attached to their electronic worlds and do not find mom's current experiment "fun."  I'm sure when the whining stops the kids will fondly look back on technology takeaway days, or they will have an effective punishment for their own kids!