My Tech free week 3-30

This week of blog entries was written as a daily diary, the old fashioned way, in a spiral notebook, to be entered into the computer when my tech free week ends.


3 days in , and I am starting to see and feel some differences in my life.


I can hear my children more. I could always hear them, as muffled sounds under the sound of the TV or radio, but now in the silence of the house, I can actually HEAR them. They way they interact with one another. I am really enjoying listening to them. These are little moments that had been there all the time, I have been missing it!


My husband came home from his business trip and entered a TV free zone. He has agreed to try to conform with the spirit of my experiment, even though it is impossible for him to go internet free. He has agreed to no TV and no gaming. He considers reading his blogs to be the same thing as reading a book, so he will continue to do that. 


I have had less desire to cheat. Today my email activities didn't take the full allotted 30 minutes and I find myself thinking I could get away with just getting on the computer once a day. I'm with the twice a day plan though, since my correspondence needs to be done in a timely manner.


As for the TV, I am ready to sell it now. I don't miss it a bit, neither do the kids. I could watch it go out the door and not batt an eye.


I finished my book "Better Off" which was my inspiration for trying this experiment. It was everything I expected. I highly recommend it. It drives home the point that we strive for convenience in our lives, but in our quest to make things easier, we actually make things harder. How the things we use to save time, actually end up costing us more time in the long run. How our lives are driven by our possessions. We work long hours to buy things that we can't take with us when we go. How true! At the end of the day what matters is our relationships with each other. I would sell all my things , move to a smaller house, if it meant I could have more time with my family. In a society that is so driven by consuming, I hope I can teach my children what is really important in life.


Don't get me wrong, I dig some of my conveniences. I won't be getting rid of my electricity or running water any time soon. There sure are a lot of things I could do with out though. In fact, doing without some things can actually strengthen our relationships. Before giving up my dishwasher I never spent tie time after dinner singing and dancing with my children. Now the memories of my baby bouncing in his highchair, my oldest shaking a tambourine and my daughter spinning in the living room are some of my fondest memories.