Parenthood Unplugged
By Laura Perkins, MLS | May 7, 2015
Project Editor, ETR
Here we are in the middle of Screen-Free Week, May 4–10, 2015! One week a year, families are encouraged to “power-down” their screens—TVs, computers, tablets, phones, games and other electronic media—and engage with each other and their own imaginations.
Powering Down
This is the first year my family and I decided consciously to participate. We already limit movies to the weekend, and our 8-year-old daughter doesn’t have her own computer or tablet or phone. She’s still very excited to play board games and cards, to make art, sing and dance. Screen-Free Week seemed like a piece of cake—chocolate with a smooth buttercream frosting.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity and other interest groups recommend discouraging any screen time for children under the age of 2, and less than 2 hours a day for older children. Too much screen time has been linked to sleep problems, behavioral problems, obesity and poorer academic performance. We know this.
Stuff Happens
Then our daughter got a bad sore throat, cough, low-grade fever, and stayed home from school for 2 days.
We played games. We drew colorful pictures of our imaginary friends. She napped. We read books. We read lots of books. And, finally, we turned on the TV for “Angelina Ballerina” and the “Wild Kratts.”
We didn’t make it this year. My first thought: we’ll nail it in 2016! But now I’m thinking, we’ll keep working on it in 2015 too. So here’s to a screen-free weekend now and then.
For some fun ideas on going unplugged, check out the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (after May 10th of course).
