No TV, No Problem

We gave up tv for Lent, and by tv (it's 2018 after all), I mean that I unplugged the Roku and threw all the Kindles in a closet in the attic. I keep my laptop and telephone out of the way until the kids are in bed. Definitely we were watching a lot of television shows, but also overuse of youtube videos to answer every little question and obsessive checking of the weather report. TMI every second of every day. I didn't realize how much the kids were looking at screens until they weren't looking at them at all.

At first, it was terrible and I'm rather inclined to still think it's terrible every day around 5 o'clock when I'm trying to cook dinner and I can't park them in front of some Netflix. Now I have to slow down the dinner prep to give them time to chop a few veggies or stir the pot. Efficiency be damned.  Sometimes it's fun. Our new kitchen layout makes it a lot easier to lay ingredients out in the mise en place fashion, although that requires a certain level of planning that is not really my natural strength. We are playing way more games. Solitaire with a real deck of cards. Chess and dominoes. Lots of puzzles and Legos.

With a conscious effort to keep my own screen out of sight, I've found it's difficult to keep up with some friends and I'm starting to be really terrible about getting back to people on text or Facebook. I guess it makes sense, my goal was to be more present with the kids, and I'm definitely doing that. But being present here, now, makes it feel like there isn't really room for much else.