Picture this: It’s four days into Summer 2023 and there is exactly 0 work / life balance happening at the Ley House. I work from home, so my work day intermingles with our family life in a big way. This is great, though challenging. I love having this type of flexibility. Still, the beginning of summer is always a strange dance while we try to find our new rhythms.
I do my best to implement systems and routines to help family life run smoothly. But when those don’t work, it usually means something has to go…
A truth: Screens are a GREAT tool, in my opinion. When the kids were younger, my favorite screen time hack was to give them screens at 5pm so I could get dinner ready. It gave me a break and gave them something to do corralled OUT of the kitchen.
Another truth: Screens are REALLY hard for me to manage. Things are changing constantly and not only am I super concerned with keeping them safe, but I worry screens keep them from doing other fun things kids should do (go outside! make things! play games!)
A dare: We did a month screen-free(ish) last year. Could we do it the entire summer? Would it be worth it? Would I survive with my sanity intact? 😬😬😬
So, here we go. I’m always up for a challenge! 😏 As are my kids. Especially when we promise a YES DAY if they can do it. So… as of last Friday, we put screens away(ish) for the summer. I knew my kids could figure out life without iPads, Roblox, and endless YouTube scrolling because they did it last year for the month of July. But the constant screen-time requests, problems with iPads, and endless monitoring of said-devices meant the entire issue was taking up way too much brain space and time for all of us.
Here’s a loose framework for what this looks like (and the key here is “loose,” IE: full of flexibility for when the mood, demands, or weather changes).