As moms of little ones, we know how valuable our time is and how short the years are. We prioritize the wellbeing of our kiddos and we make sure to restrict their screen time. But what about our own? Consider doing a detox from technology this summer right alongside your children.
How To Have A Low-Tech Summer As A Mom
Identify areas of struggle
There are so many avenues for us to travel down today on smartphones, laptops, and other electronic devices. If you find yourself getting swept up into a virtual vortex and wasting way minutes that matter online instead of redeeming the time you’ve been given, you are not alone. Consider which areas you struggle most with or if your struggle is with screens as a whole.
- Online shopping
- Social media
- Email checking
- Group texts
- Streaming shows
- Watching videos
- Listening to podcasts
Try my 30 day phone detox challenge and grab the free digital detox printable over on this blog:
Challenge yourself
What would you most benefit from when it comes to a screen detox? If you’ve got blind spots about your own tech usage, ask your spouse where they observe you wasting the most time. Challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone with electronic devices and to commit to a legitimate change for a length of time.
Here are some digital detox challenges you could do for a low-tech summer:
- 30 days off of your most frequently visited online shopping sites. Ask your spouse to block them from the router and remove the app from your phone.
- A full summer off of social media. Deactivate your accounts and make plans with friends in person.
- Instead of turning on a podcast while you do your housework, start leaving white space to be with your own thoughts and answer your children’s many questions.
- Pause or deactivate streaming services for the summer.
- Limit email checking to the weekends.
Create a summer to-do list
It is a lot easier to replace negative habits with positive ones than it is to stop doing something cold turkey and depending on sheer will to get you through. If you compulsively check your phone and scroll online, you’re going to need new things to do. Come up with a list of projects, goals, and activities to fill some of the time that you typically spend on screens.
Below are some things I plan to do during our screen free summer. Use these ideas as a jumping off point for inspiration to help you come up with tasks that would fit you as a mama.
- Remove the old photos, quotes, charts, bible verses, and pictures from our hallway corkboard. Redecorate with fresh material.
- Clean out our homeschool drawers and finish creating our end of year homeschool portfolios.
- Weed through old curriculum, save what can be used, and get rid of the rest. Restock the drawers with fresh homeschool materials.
- Clean out our art drawers and restock with fresh art materials.
- Clean out our catch all closet.
- Generally declutter our home.
- Go through the kids’ clothing and get rid of what no longer fits.
- Use part of our daily quiet time to have one on one book clubs with each of my kids.
- Let my son teach me how to play chess.
- Pick back up on knitting.
- Take frequent walks.
- Meet friends for playdates.
- Host families for dinner.
Get on the same page with your spouse
Imagine that you were trying to make your health a priority and quit sugar. You start your day off with a light exercise, drink extra water, and make healthy choices for breakfast and lunch. But then your spouse comes home with fast food, store bought cookies, and a candy jar he’d like to use as the centerpiece on the dining room table. It would be really challenging to stay the course with a spouse who is unaware or unsupportive of your desire to live a healthy lifestyle.
The same goes for screen time. If you want to make changes in yours and your children’s tech usage, communicate with your spouse ahead of time. Invite them to join you, but withhold judgement if they are not ready to make a change. Be kind and clear on what you need from them.
If your spouse does not want to join you for a low-tech summer, perhaps they would at least be willing to compromise in some way. For example, they could save their TV watching for while you and the kids are out on an evening walk. Or you could ask them to leave their phone at a charging station in the kitchen instead of bringing it to bed to scroll on social media. Invite your spouse to chat and play simple card games with you instead of opening up their laptop. Only you know what will work best for your family, but hopefully these ideas have given you some inspiration.
If you’re ready for a time of refreshment off of technology, summer is as good a time as any! You can do it, Mama. You will be so glad you did.
Do your kids need a tech detox as well? Check out these blogs on how to give your kids an incredible screen free summer: