I am not the best mom when it comes to screen time and have occasional guilt about it. The issue in my house is mostly iPad time and my 3rd grader may watch more than his share of Minecraft “how to” videos on YouTube. It’s sometimes just easier to let them sit with the iPads and have their quiet time that way. But with school starting this week, I’m trying to get a little more interaction and non-screen time back into our lives, for all of us (including both mommies).
My goal now is to move away from screen time before bed and into a better unwinding routine for us all. I know that I am usually a human stress ball by bedtime and this isn’t helping my sleep – I’m sure it isn’t helping everyone else’s.
One goal I have is to create a reading nook (i.e. quiet space) in our home – which isn’t exactly easy in a 1300 sq. ft. space with 5 people. Since 1 of the 5 is mostly out of the house and will be gone indefinitely into the Air Force in October, I’m doing some redecorating/redesigning. I hope to have a little alcove late this fall with some bean bag chairs, a little bookshelf and a light. BTW – I’m open to suggestions for our little alcove. It’s probably 6 feet wide and 3-4 ft deep at the top of our stairs.
To find alternate things to do between dinner and bedtime, we’ve focused again on our family game nights and I also bought myself a present:
I’m going to color alongside of my boys. It’s pretty amazing to sit after a long day of work and color alongside of 2 energetic little boys!
I’m not crafty and I’m not going to be able to spend a ton of time looking for projects to do with my kids. I leave the house at 7 am and return close to 7 pm. My hope is that my time with them is going to be the quiet-unwinding-type of time, insomuch as possible. I want to be less stressed and wound up at bedtime and hopefully do the same for them.
Some nights we read (the new Captain Underpants book will arrive shortly), some nights we play (although game night is not always calming), some nights we color. Hopefully, we will have less nights of YouTube and bickering over who burned whose Minecraft house down.
Holly worked in business and educational fields before going to law school in 2000. In October 2011, Holly lost her job and spent 10 months of unemployment as a full-time, stay-at-home mom while sneaking in some soul-searching, Holly is now working in-house with a multi-national corporation and loving it! Outside of work, Holly is trying to find a reasonable work-life balance that includes work success while trying to get back into a normal home-life schedule. As those pieces are coming together, Holly is hoping to commit to a healthier lifestyle for herself and the entire family (including a newfound interest in cycling, triathlons and mud runs! – very “newfound”). Holly also is developing a new sense of self-awareness as she is committing to meditating and trying to practice mindfulness in a world of chaos. She lives in Danbury with her wife, Lois, and their two spirited and energetic sons, Andrew (7) and Dylan (4).
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