Mark and I came to the realization shortly before Christmas that despite our best efforts....our kids were spending too much time in front of a screen. Whether that was a 20 minute episode of Wild Kratts...that turned into 3. Or 15 minutes playing on the Ipad that turned into a half hour. Even before we had kids, we always vowed that TV would not be a babysitter in our house. Now don't get me wrong, there are days and times when it can't be avoided, but we did not (and do not) want that to be our 'go to'.
I decided we were going to challenge ourselves in the month of January to un-plug!
So......how did it go???
Horrible. No screen January turned into EVERYONE IS GOING TO GET SICK JANUARY.
It started with Owen and Nora getting colds, no big deal, right? Then it quickly turned into Emmett's stomach bug......which Mark and I were also lucky enough to catch. I literally held our poor little guy 24 hours a day for a week. He would not even tolerate a baby carrier. He wanted to be held and snuggled and that was that.
So.....Poor Owen and Nora were kind of left to fend for themselves. Structure? What structure?? If you know me, you know how I like a good schedule. That was out the window and so was no screen January. The big kids did great. They helped me get meals on the table and they played on their own as much as they could, but there was definitely a movie time each day.
After a week of throwing up, and catching the respiratory stuff too we unfortunately ended up in the hospital with Emmett. Mark and I spent a weekend at Children's Hospital and thankfully they got him to feeling better. I hated to be away from the big kids, but they were having a blast with Grandma Cindy. I couldn't help but notice how quiet it was at the hospital. Saturday morning Mark had to go into work as he ran out the door Friday night to meet me at the hospital. I spent a good part of the day just holding a sleeping baby in a quiet hospital room. It was so strange. I have come to realize I am not used to quiet. It is almost un-nerving.
So, was No-Screen January a success??
I would have to say no, BUT I will say by the last week of January we had gotten back into a routine, I have started a more structured day of play and activites (mostly for Owen's sake. He needs structure or he goes a little bonkers) We have one time during the day that the kids get TV or Ipad time and that is it. I feel like that is an accomplishment. Baby steps. :)
