Day 3:
What I learned: Tuesday is usually our crazy-busy day of the week (think 5 piano lessons at two different locations, 1 boy with an after school dog walking job, homework & a quick dinner, then 4 of the 5 boys are each off to different boy scout or cub scout groups at different times/locations that evening. And Michael is Elijah's scout leader, and I'm the cub scout committee chair so I help out with the awards when we have our monthly pack meetings, also on Tuesday nights). So one reason that I was initially hesitant about how I could realistically avoid using my phone after school is Tuesdays -- I wondered how to avoid checking my phone when trying to arrange carpools to/from scouts, communicating with the various scout leaders & piano teachers, etc. So today was my first Tuesday doing this, and it worked out totally fine. I realized that I have a perfect opportunity already built into my regular Tuesday schedule to check my phone if I need to contact anyone about scouts: I drop Kolby & Elijah off at their piano studio early in the evening, and then I can take a few minutes to briefly check my phone after I drop them off. I did that today, spent about 1 minute checking, didn't have any messages I needed to respond to anyway, and I didn't feel like I was taking away from my device-free time with my kids. (It's funny how I've gotten so used to checking my phone frequently that I feel like it's necessary -- but really it's not. After being away from my phone all afternoon/evening, I didn't have any texts or calls, and I only had 4 emails, none of which required time-sensitive responses. I'm starting to let myself relax & not worry about it, because if there really was an emergency someone would call me. :)
What we did: I started out by walking to the mailbox to send a letter with Isaac & Courtland. Then I worked on packaging up the second to last of the Christmas gifts I have left to wrap. And I showed Isaac & Courtland how to change the ink cartridge in the printer and how to print our family photo for this year's family photo frame ornament, and we got it hung up on the tree. After we finished that I read for a short time, then I got dinner prepped and took the older boys to piano. When I got back I sat down next to Courtland on the couch and he said he wanted to snuggle, and then he went and picked up the binder out of the basket of Christmas books and asked what it was. I told him it had our family Christmas letters in it from each year, and asked if he wanted me to read one to him, and he said no. So instead we looked at the photos and how the family grew each year, and he thought it was really funny to see the signatures at the bottom of each letter, especially the scribbled "signatures" of the boys when they were especially young. That wasn't really a big deal at all, and we didn't spend too much time sitting together and looking at those pictures & letters together before we had to do dinner and then leave for pack meeting, but it's something I likely wouldn't have taken the time to sit down and do with him if I had been distracted by "getting things done" on my phone or computer instead.
So here's my updated goals/limits for my technology experiment, since I updated how I do things on Tuesdays:
The Plan: No computer or cell phone use on weekdays from the time the kids get home from school until the kids' bedtime (while at least one of the kids is with me).
Except:
•I can answer phone calls.
•I can use the computer or phone if it’s specifically needed for an activity with one of the kids (can take a photo of the kids with my phone, help my kids work on genealogy, look up a recipe to cook together, look up contact info/directions if we are going somewhere or need to call someone, etc.)
•I may check my phone briefly after dropping my boys off at the piano studio on Tuesday evenings to check/answer messages that are needed for scout carpools that evening, if necessary.
•I can use the phone to send someone a quick message if I feel prompted to reach out to someone at a certain time.
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