Friends of ours, who also own this rather large natural soap company, have a method for dealing with life’s many distractions. They took the time and made a list of what each of them need to be “their best selves.” Exercise, quiet time, family meals, time outside, reading, socializing with others, and making things (both physical and virtual) would top my list. As a family though, the list would need to be quite a bit larger.
How do we promote our best selves? As our youngest said as we took the Westy out for the trial run, “Camping to the rescue!”
We all need some time away, and often camping provides that escape from the day to day, while still maintaining a sense of normalcy and family life. Whether it’s “car camping” or hiking, spending time in conversation while exercising leads us into a closer relationship with our boys and each other. But we can’t camp all the time (sadly).
So what do we do with the non-camping time? Chores, chores, chores. Kidding, mostly.
Our kids love playing on technology, and as parents we’ve run the gamut from maintaining a draconian regime of technological avoidance to one of almost anything goes. As people who work in online media and technology it’s hard to avoid being tethered to your phone, your laptop, or your tablet. These work requirements mean that the opportunity for abuse is there. At last count there were somewhere near 20 machines in our house more powerful (computationally) than the space shuttle. So how do you promote balance?
Simple rules that are sometimes hard to follow:
- People are more important than things. Always, no exceptions.
- No devices at the table.
- No devices after 6pm.
- No devices in bed.
- No video games before school. (For some reason a cartoon does not have the sticking power of a video game – so in our house cartoons are usually ok if all chores are done and they’re ready for school.)
Now as to what they’re doing on their devices, well we have rules and I suppose you do too. Some devices, like Kindle Fires, allow you to set up profiles and rules for use such as – no games until you’ve read for an hour, etc. Most devices default to a wide-open-sandbox approach, or at least an approach that requires a lot of manual locking down to be child-friendlier. At the very least make sure your content filters are on and that questionable programs (Flash, I’m looking at you) are closely monitored.
If you’re looking for advice or cautionary tales, here’s a great article on social media red flags from Common Sense Media (reposted by Geek Dad).