I think most of us can relate when it comes to trying to balance spending true quality time together and time spent on electronic devices. It can be really difficult sometimes for my husband and I to pull our kids out of that “social media world”. As I am sure many of you do as well. In fact, since we have not allowed our kids to have cell phones, I think most of you may even have a harder time because of smart phones. I also think that most of us, by now, know how this significant decrease in social interaction (face-to-face conversation) has negatively impacted kids today. So how do we get them off of their devices?!?
First, may I suggest baby steps? If you try too many different tactics and get really strict all at once it will be like “sticker shock” and it won’t go over well. For example, if you start with a sit-down family dinner, then make the first 5 to 10 minutes gadget free. As your family settles into this routine, then you can work your way up to a completely device-free meal.
Another great option is periodically scheduling an “event”. In the beginning, allow for some usage of devices. Then you would gradually transition to device-free (or nearly free) events. Not sure what to plan? How about a family game night?
For a few years now my family schedules a game about every other month with our cousins. We get snacks, drinks, and order dinner (pizza, Wawa hoagies, etc.) and we play board games until late into the night. The kids love it! It’s a great way to spend time together as a family AND also stay close to extended family. You can make your game night as big or as small as you like – the only thing to consider are the games you will be able to play based on the size of your party. That being said, you can play as teams so you can still play games that have a very limited number of players. And if you need some game recommendations, hop on over to my product recommendations page where I will give a quick overview of some of the games we play.
