Conscious Effort

Last night as I couldn't sleep I was browsing. A friend on FaceBook posted a link to How to Miss a Childhood. I read it and kept reading blog after blog of hers. No I was not 100% guilty of being glued to my iPhone. I had my boundaries. I wasn't on it during school, dinner, bed time tuck-in, family nights..... but I did check my iPhone every time it dinged throughout the day.

So today I decided to make a conscious effort to not check my FaceBook. I logged out of it on my iPhone so I didn't get notifications. This morning while the kids were still asleep, I updated my status, uploaded a few pictures then logged out. This afternoon while my youngest was taking a nap I updated my status, uploaded a few pictures then logged out. I did not have my phone with me when I was at a playground playing with the kids. I did not check my notifications at red lights. And tonight when we watch America's Funniest Videos I will not be checking my phone.

Tonight at dinner I asked my 6 year old a loaded question (that was mentioned in the blog I referenced). "What do I do too much of?" she thought & thought and thought...... she thought for a good 10 minutes. I told her we would come back to that. I asked her "What do I not do enough of?" She thought a couple minutes and said "School! some days we don't do school!" yesterday was her brother's birthday & we don't do school on birthdays around here, so it was probably fresh on her mind. So yay, she wants more school - good, because First Grade is coming up!

Back to "What do I do too much of?" she thought again and again.... then finally said "Cook too much! You should let us help you out. And you do too much laundry! We can help you, you need to let us do some things for you! And you do the dishes too much" In her word cook she meant just being in the kitchen, making their foods, cleaning their dishes, getting their drinks. I do feel like I spend a lot of time in the kitchen!

This really made me happy.... she did not say that I am on my phone too much..... she did not say that I exercise too much...... she did not say that I yell too much...... Now on another day, when nothing is going right, I'm sure she'll say "You're doing too much of _______" :) But today is good.

Make a conscious effort to put your phones down at the playground, at the dinner table, if you take your kids to school - at drop off & pick up (as mentioned in the above blog).

I pray that I do not miss a childhood of any of my children