Before I set the two hour timer (actually it was a two and a half hour timer), I asked my husband / forced my kids to join me in the challenge. My husband laughed when I told him about it and said, “You’ll never survive that.” He wasn’t being unkind. He was being pragmatic. The only part of the statement that bothered me was his absolute sincerity and probable accuracy. However nothing motivates me more than someone telling me I can’t do something, so it was on like Donkey Kong!
The event started full of promise. I had to tackle a jigsaw puzzle situation (yeah – I know – lame central but it has turned into a thing that will be explained later) and the kids and husband bailed on me shortly thereafter.
I played with the kids a bit and prepped dinner. I also found time to read a book. It was utterly luxurious. Again – I know this sounds incredibly underwhelming, but I literally can’t remember the last time I read a book on a workday evening. I have been working such crazy hours to the point that I sometimes work all night long. Until the sun comes up. Not. My. Favorite.
This was the first time I forced myself to shut down when wifi was still permitted and available. It was freeing. But…
But it was also extremely disconcerting. I lost count of the number of times I caught myself mentally reaching for my phone. I was bored. Thank heavens for that book. I wanted to do fun stuff with my family, but they were excited to the level of “Eh” and maybe a little below that. My husband had gone to work very early, so he basically slept through the whole gig. Challenge cheater. I contemplated topics to write about and ran through my work to do lists in my mind. The kids moved from super bored to rather annoying and made so much noise that I was afraid that they would wake my husband. They spent a few minutes in their rooms and a few more doing the stairs (it’s my quick tactic when I need for them to clear out some of the frenetic kid energy). The most disturbing moment was when the kids dashed for their own tech devices right after the challenge cutoff timer sounded. Their relief was palpable.
What have I been teaching my kids by example? What have we been allowing and unintentionally maybe even encouraging them to do? This was a challenge I set for myself, but I can already see the importance for my family, too.
I knew that we needed to unplug more. I could see that we were doing a disservice to ourselves and our kids. However I grossly underestimated the importance of a couple of hours. I thought that we needed a bit of down time that might allow us to take a small break and enjoy the time together. But in just one evening, I already realize that it’s much bigger and much more important than I had initially perceived. I’m curious to see what the next evening will bring.
Momentum of Joy 