How I Unconnected with My Family This Weekend

by Lori Cunningham

About our Weekend

Just wanted to give you a brief update how my weekend went with my family after we accepted the Shout Unplug & Play Weekend Challenge.  I wrote about my apprehension in my Can I Unplug for an Entire Weekend? article.  Before starting my weekend, I was chastised by my mom tech friends, though not all of them, for taking up such a silly challenge.

Nonetheless, my daughter held strong and was very eager for us to start our unplugged weekend.  She was pretty strict, insisting that I don’t even used my electric toothbrush!  I carried no phone, no cool Striiv pedometer (of which I’m pretty addicted to), and I didn’t check my e-mail once.

Here’s what we did this weekend:

SATURDAY – we enjoyed my five-year old son’s football game and my eight-year old daughter’s soccer game in the morning.  Afterwards, I was feeling under the weather from a bad cold I’ve had all week, it finally got the better of me.  Off I went to bed for a couple of hours.  My husband worked outside and played with the kids enjoying the California  sunshine.

After my nap I noticed a little bit of wind (outside that is!)  We set up the ultra cool 3D kite we had purchased years ago and ran outside to see if we could fly it.  The kite soared into the wind streamers flapping, amazing everyone.  Soon afterwards, it nose-dived, but we tried again, finding spurts of wind and soaring success…until it got caught in a tree.  Oh yeah, I remember kites in trees now from my childhood, that’s usually how each of my kite flying sessions ended!  With some ingenuity (and a folded up paper lying around), we retrieved our princess fairy kite and headed inside.

Later we played Blunders, a fun game I found at the ASTRA toy show, that teaches kids about manners.  We had a great time and I loved how the game taught kids how to set the table through play.  Then, the kids went off to bed.  Without the computer or TV’s interference, my husband and I talked for a couple of hours, catching up.

SUNDAY – despite the time change, we arrived on time, even early, to church.  Unfortunately, it rained all day long.  Our ideas for a fun picnic at the park were squelched, well, at least partially.  We set up our blanket on our family room floor and had a picnic.  The kids loved this idea.  I had done this once before when my daughter was 3.  Wow, it took me 5 years to do it again?  We all had a blast.

After the picnic we baked shrinky dinks, another favorite from my childhood.  Later, my husband took the kids for a dunk in our hot spa, enjoying the rain clouds and rain drops.  A fun end to a fun day.

Lessons Learned

I learned a number of lessons from this unplugged weekend:

• If I can unplug for a whole weekend, I can do anything!
• By the excitement of my daughter anticipating this weekend, I’m obviously a little too “connected.”
• Weekends last longer if you disconnect from your work and your tirade of e-mail’s.
• My kids aren’t the only ones preoccupied with their Pet Hotel, Pet Shop, Bakery, Garden Glee, Smurfs and other games.  I’m always “helping them out” by working on these games when they’re at school, but they are a time sucker.
• Flying a kite is so fun…I found a new great activity that the whole family loves doing together.
• My husband and kids are the best and I’m so thankful to have been in the moment with them this past weekend.

How about you, are you a little too “plugged” in with your gadgets?