Device Disease

Device Disease

The kids have device disease. Mom arrives home carrying in the groceries all by herself. She has had a busy day at work. The kids are on Summer break and not paying attention to what all needs to be done at home.  Mom looks around and sees every one of her children using devices and not caring.

When I grew up in the ’90s, I remember asking my parents, “if this is how the world is not, what will it be like when I have kids?” Well, unfortunately my husband and I do not have kids, however we are wanting and working on finding a courageous mother who is choosing adoption. This world has changed so much.

When you are all sitting around the table eating dinner, with your cell phones and there is no conversation happening, or it is only happening through text messaging, you have device disease. What ever happened to having family conversations about your day, face to face? It is like an addiction for some people. We want to challenge you as a family to have a device free two day weekend together. Disconnect to reconnect.

Your kids may think they are being punished, but they may just thank you at the end of this weekend project. Your family is worth investing in, and that is what you will do with this project. It is like someone quitting smoking. It may be difficult to walk around without something in your hands, so encourage your kids to grab a cleaning sponge and and have a mop and glow party. Clean the house in the dark with glow sticks for fun.

Inspire your creative juices by unplugging and overcoming your device disease. You may discover something unique about your children that you did not know. Have a family picnic, play a board game, or let your child be bored on purpose. Being bored stretches our minds to think of something to do, instead of relying on devices to fill in those creative gaps in our mind. Many great ideas or inventions have come from boredom or accidents.

It is a great time to reminisce, to help alleviate your device disease. What did you do when you were younger and did not have a cell phone? You might take a trip to the library and pick up a great book to read or find a book about things to do that do not involve the internet. Create your own newspaper with made up headlines about your current life. You could also create a vision board with your children. Encourage them to write down their life goals. Cut out photos from old magazines and make a collage about what you want to be or do when you grow up.

When is the last time your children talked with a friend by actually going to their house, knocking on the door, and inviting them to come outside and play? Encourage more physical exercise by riding bikes together. Then, as a reward you all can make homemade pizzas together for dinner.

Device disease can be highly contagious as you hear your phone making all of those notification sounds, that tempt you to pick it up. Turn off your devices this weekend and start the school year off right, by making a school time capsule. You could also make a family or individual, personalized time capsule. While your children are bonding closer during this device free weekend, share stories and gather sentimental mementos or memorabilia around your house, school, town, social club, etc.

Write a fun about me page to save in the time capsule. What are your child’s favorites list for this year? Who are their current best friends? What do they enjoy doing for fun? Then, have each child fill out the “message to the future” stationary included with each “any occasion” DIY time capsule, used to make their own school, family, or individual time capsule. Fill the time capsule with your mementos or heirloom items. Then, choose a date to open the time capsules in the future, to reminisce about what life was like this year.

No one can replace your family, so spend quality time together and enjoy making memories at the same time. What are some device free things you like to do as a family? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie