4. Zero screen week-end 2/4
Hello!😊
It is 14:45 and I am happy. The zero screen week-end is going good!
My decision of a no-screen weekend was met with something close to hatred this morning. My husband's look was not of encouragement but of pity, disappointment was around the corner it said.
I did mot care. Nothing could be worse than seeing my 4 little precious darlings riveted to these nasty screens all day, sucking up whatever is on display as it was a cocktail of youth and life and utter happiness.
Excuses followed, as they do, all lacking in imagination and inventiveness. Be the judge! (Those of you who know my kids can try to make the excuse match the child.)
1) I can't do without screens all week-end! I have got tons of homework.
2) Yes, mum! Don't you know there's a lockdown! We cannot go to school and without our screens we cannot study. 😭
3) I can't bring my laptop downstairs because I can't unplug it off and I can't because then it takes ages and then I can't start it again it takes too long. And ... (That one actually made the other 3 laugh and come out with: 'Just breathe!' and ' Come, Mum and Dad are not going to fall for that one!'
4) I need my phone. I am going to have a shower. ... 😳
5) This is just going to such a boring week-end: we cannot go out and we cannot even have our phones! That is a stupid idea.
6) My friends have got to send me a really important message because they don't have Internet (lucky them) and their parents are worried they're not getting homework ...
I listened to all that. After breakfast, my husband went on some errands in town (brave man) and I went round collecting screens. An iPad and an iPhone were innocently charging on the lounge rug. I picked them up. I went to the top floor and found an iPad abandoned on a bed. I picked that one up too. Hey, this was easy!
I went to the girls' bathroom. Loud singing (screaming) over loud music was coming out of the bathroom. I knocked on the door but no reply. I went to the bedroom and picked up singing daughter's laptop off the floor. Went back downstairs.
Adding up time: two phones, two iPads, one laptop. The youngest ones were definitely sorted. This is a marathon not a sprint, I thought to myself.
Then my son came down and hovered over his phone, I let him. The minute he left the room I picked up all that paraphernalia and put it under lock and key.
It was getting close to lunchtime. Singing daughter came down, phone in hand. ' I need you on my side here. You're not a kid anymore.'
She glared at me but put her phone on the mantelpiece, close to the wall, where they go when I ban them. She saw her laptop on the table but said nothing.
Daughter with technical problem was a bit trickier. She yelled and raved on and on, with arguments and examples and counter-examples but ended up putting her phone in the banned phones area on the mantelpiece. One item was left out of my control and it was her laptop (the one that cannot be turned off nor unplugged 🤣).
I decided to let that go. As long as the owner was downstairs, we were all off screen.
Mum plus 2 cooked lunch together, dad plus 2 were outside in the garden fooling around. We had lunch and there were arguments as usual but no mentions of screens, or lack of.
Then after lunch, a request from all to have a screen to do homework 😏 until 4PM. I agreed to homework time.
Score: Mum: one, kids: nil. 😅 Wish me luck!
It is 14:45 and I am happy. The zero screen week-end is going good!
My decision of a no-screen weekend was met with something close to hatred this morning. My husband's look was not of encouragement but of pity, disappointment was around the corner it said.
I did mot care. Nothing could be worse than seeing my 4 little precious darlings riveted to these nasty screens all day, sucking up whatever is on display as it was a cocktail of youth and life and utter happiness.
Excuses followed, as they do, all lacking in imagination and inventiveness. Be the judge! (Those of you who know my kids can try to make the excuse match the child.)
1) I can't do without screens all week-end! I have got tons of homework.
2) Yes, mum! Don't you know there's a lockdown! We cannot go to school and without our screens we cannot study. 😭
3) I can't bring my laptop downstairs because I can't unplug it off and I can't because then it takes ages and then I can't start it again it takes too long. And ... (That one actually made the other 3 laugh and come out with: 'Just breathe!' and ' Come, Mum and Dad are not going to fall for that one!'
4) I need my phone. I am going to have a shower. ... 😳
5) This is just going to such a boring week-end: we cannot go out and we cannot even have our phones! That is a stupid idea.
6) My friends have got to send me a really important message because they don't have Internet (lucky them) and their parents are worried they're not getting homework ...
I listened to all that. After breakfast, my husband went on some errands in town (brave man) and I went round collecting screens. An iPad and an iPhone were innocently charging on the lounge rug. I picked them up. I went to the top floor and found an iPad abandoned on a bed. I picked that one up too. Hey, this was easy!
I went to the girls' bathroom. Loud singing (screaming) over loud music was coming out of the bathroom. I knocked on the door but no reply. I went to the bedroom and picked up singing daughter's laptop off the floor. Went back downstairs.
Adding up time: two phones, two iPads, one laptop. The youngest ones were definitely sorted. This is a marathon not a sprint, I thought to myself.
Then my son came down and hovered over his phone, I let him. The minute he left the room I picked up all that paraphernalia and put it under lock and key.
It was getting close to lunchtime. Singing daughter came down, phone in hand. ' I need you on my side here. You're not a kid anymore.'
She glared at me but put her phone on the mantelpiece, close to the wall, where they go when I ban them. She saw her laptop on the table but said nothing.
Daughter with technical problem was a bit trickier. She yelled and raved on and on, with arguments and examples and counter-examples but ended up putting her phone in the banned phones area on the mantelpiece. One item was left out of my control and it was her laptop (the one that cannot be turned off nor unplugged 🤣).
I decided to let that go. As long as the owner was downstairs, we were all off screen.
Mum plus 2 cooked lunch together, dad plus 2 were outside in the garden fooling around. We had lunch and there were arguments as usual but no mentions of screens, or lack of.
Then after lunch, a request from all to have a screen to do homework 😏 until 4PM. I agreed to homework time.
Score: Mum: one, kids: nil. 😅 Wish me luck!
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