Day 0 and Day 1

No one, and I mean NO ONE, is thrilled about this little experiment rolling around the Womack home. Starting today, December 13th, the four of us are going "media free". We will reconvene the
evening of Monday, January 4th, to talk about our next steps.

So, what does this mean and why... Well, it means no TV, no internet (non-work related/non-Christmas shopping related), and a greater focus on each other. One summer the kids got busted for something and went for a month without it. After the initial detox, they became pretty nice kids to be around. About a week ago, I listened to all of us snapping at each other, whining about things not being just so, and I thought - "enough!". Kevin and I talked about it and agreed to see if living this way might help. The desire to not raise rude children - and not to be a role model for rudeness - seems to be more achievable this way. We also know that the fast-paced stimulation of media negatively impacts Little Miss and her ADHD.

We gave wiggle room for special things - I am hoping the new Star Wars movie is one- but agreed to all focus on each other. This means also not having phones out when we are all home. The Student Ministries room at church has a Tech-No box that all kids drop their phone in upon entry. I tried to lighten the mood by saying our house is a big Tech-No box. It went over as well as you can imagine.

For Day 0, we decided to give the girls unlimited media. Kevin issued a fair warning that it may be harder if they binged the day before a fast. Pfft - what would he know, right? Z woke up early and was watching TV by 6am. She stayed there all stinkin' day! Big girl slept it and then was on her Kindle all day. Today (Day 1) has been rough.

Day 1: Around 4pm, the girls went outside and started chasing each other around with some old balloons. 4 hours inside lamenting and moping before they broke and did something together. Around 5:15pm, Zoe brought over a book we've been talking about and asked if we could read it together. It has also been tough on me. Out of habit, I went to check Facebook several times. Habit, boredom - either way, I was pretty surprised to find it happening. Finally deleted the app from my phone. I've been thinking about writing this journey down, so I am doing a little tonight. Am really hoping to have some time while at work to do this stuff in the future. Kevin's been sick today, so has spent most of the day in bed. Maybe his challenge will be tomorrow. 😉

I was having a hard time getting something to load on my phone. I asked the good doctor if he knew what was happening with the wireless. He smirked and said, "I unplugged the modem." Genius. Looks like it is on, but it is not. No sneaking around here! Three cheers for making it through Day 1!