iChildhoods

When I think hard about it, I know it’s not about how much time we’re spending on technology. Really, it’s about how we might have spent that time elsewhere. Might we have done something productive? Inspired? A spontaneous walk in the woods to fend off restlessness? Reading the BFG on the couch while dinner simmers? The chance to serve someone else? A craft to counteract boredom, a puzzle, a baking session, a snack? A rousing round of Dutch Blitz? An actual, real-life conversation?

I loved, last week, when an aunt assumed the boys did not have their own devices.
Our people first rule is pretty firm.

I have been looking, concertedly, for things to do that make me forget to look at my own phone.

As eager as the boys were for a gaming console, I was equally unenthusiastic about having one in our house. I just have this awful vision of them holding joysticks while missing out on true joys.
Plus, I feel like we have enough responsibility monitoring television and computer and iPad use, which skyrockets when we are desperate for things like productive time and sleep.

We set limits, we get lax. I want conversation, I crave quiet.
I quit. We start over.

Today the boys joined African drummers at church, worked on classroom Valentine cards, took ski lessons and played the Switch.
They're doing fine. We're doing fine.
But, I know that our days become our lives, and our choices become their stories.
I want the light in their eyes to shine brighter than any screens.