Screen Free Week – Survival Guide Motivation

As some of you may know, April 30th – May 7th. This is an awesome initiative to help families to bond and get kids the much needed time away from screens. A good clue as to if your family needs Screen Free time is is you can feel it is interfering with your family time. So good news for parents, you can still use it when not together with kids or for checking on agendas.

For kids it’s a whole new ball game. This means no iPads, TV, tablets, phone etc. The focus will be on activities and togetherness.

Although week of April 30th was the ‘official’ Screen Free Week, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it any time. But it’s more fun to do it with others so if you are going to give it a go some other time during the month, make sure to involve some of your friends. Keep score helps. ALOT. I have a couple friends motivating me right now. Also the fact that I’ve hidden the charger somewhere and for the life of me I cannot find it. So we’re essentially doing Screen Free Week regardless.

There are multiple studies and research that has backed up why screen time can be rough on the kids. It  does tend to limit creativity to some extent, acts as a huge distraction and hinders their focusing abilities, limits their physical activity and has been linked to childhood obesity. The list can go on and on. I mean I love the me time I get when my little one gets the iPad but that doesn’t mean I’m doing the right thing (I admit, it’s one of my major parenting fails). So I suppose this is more to reassure myself that I am a passable parent and baby get some exercise myself. And stay away from my phone from time to time.

You can find tons of organizers and printables at Screen Free Week web page. I’m currently using their free printable to help me understand and plan out the week. Plus if you scroll on to page 43 they have tons of activities that you can do indoors, outdoors, alone, with friends etc. It’s pretty awesome. Do go through the entire planner, it’s enough to make you want to continue more than a week.

If you need more ideas, check out my post on some of the free activities you can do with your little one!

If that doesn’t convince you then that’s where I come in. We’re into Day 3 of the week and already there’s been a difference. I know my little one is a bit young at the moment but trust me she’s an expert on making me lose my mind  (Honey if you ever read this, remember I love you <3)

For us, taking the screen away meant:

Playing with toys you paid for with your hard earned money

Okay so as adults who give money away to retailers it feels nice when your child actually plays with those things. If ever there was a time to get your money’s worth out of those purchases, this is it. Just make 2-3 bags of those toys and rotate them every other week. You will not need to spend money on toys again ( for a while at least). That’s a major saving tip right there! Ha!

Getting some much needed fresh air

The timing is perfect with summer upon us. The perfect time to get some fresh oxygen to those brains that stop functioning during clean up time. Think of it like airing the kids out after the winter. Let the breeze take all the muskiness away (again honey if you ever read this, Mommy loves you very much!). It will instill the love of outdoors too. And trust me, if you’re an outdoorsy person, you need them to love it. It will make life so much more fun.

Discovering and learning new things – Together

With little ones this is much easier since everything is pretty new for them. The awe on their face when they see new flowers, butterflies, grass and even bugs is sooo precious. Warning, this activity will come with the side effects of wanting to squeeze your little one every few minutes.

Much calmer demeanor

Since the kids will be away from screen for some time, you will notice initially they will get aggressive. And that’s part of the sort of screen rehab experience. Once they adjust to this, there will be less kicking and tantrum throwing since  screen free time also encourages dealing with our feelings and sharing what we’re going through. Oh and fair warning, I am not promising that the tantrums are going to go away forever, Nope, we are not that lucky. That’s never going to happen. Nope Nope. I’m in my 30s and I still throw tantrums when my mom is around (Sorry mommy!). But over, being away from the screen would bring about a slightly calmer demeanor in your child. Being a parent, a little goes a long way!

Physical exercise

This is one of my favorite side effects. The physical exercise. Not only will we be getting to use those muscles but this will mean we will be wearing out that excessive energy. Do you realize what that means? That means tired kids! That means bedtime on time! That means less energy for arguing! Wohooo!  I mean just for this reason alone I’m ready to throw out the iPad (just kidding, I have my Netflix on it!)

Eating proper meals

This is tied to getting some exercise too. My little penguin has been eating right since we started going out more. All that running around has been making her hungry. I mean we aren’t snacking indoors since we’re outside so that may have contributed a bit. But the exercise has been phenomenal in getting her to eat those meals I slave on. That’s great news for both of us which means less arguing during meal times too.

If these points are not enough to get you to join in on the Screen Free Movement then I don’t know what will.  Just the fact that there will be a bed time is the motivation I needed to get started.

There is one major drawback and that’s quite possibly more of a ‘Me’ thing. You will find yourself shopping a lot more. SO keep those receipts in case you find yourself binge shopping.  We’re still on Day 3 so watch out for my tweets , facebook posts and grams to keep in touch with how I’m doing (and If I need rescuing!)

Plus there will be less shouting from my house so I’m sure the neighbors are going to be loving it too.

Let me know below if you are daring to try out Screen Free Week. I’d love to partner up with you and motivate each other to keep going. Us parents,guardians, care takers gotta stick together on this!