Life without the screen

So it's Friday, one full school week down with no screen during the day. I have moments when I think about how it would be nice to turn on a show, like when I am on the phone. But then I think, inevitably, even if I had a show on, the kids seem to always need me as soon as I start a conversation. At this point, I am thinking I will not be giving screen time back during the week days. Maybe in the evening before bed, probably for short times on the weekend, but my kids are so much more engaged with me and with their siblings when the screens are not even an option. We find ourselves just hanging out in the living room all having a discussion about something or another far more often than we did before. Our "down time" is spent sitting around the baby wondering what she could possibly be thinking about. Not that we didn't do these things before. But here is how it went before..
child: "oh, look how cute she is, I just want to ear her up. I wonder why she stares at the fan all day..."

Me: "she likes the contrast between the dark fan and light ceiling."

child: "oh, can I go play wii?"

Me: "no, not yet"

child: {pouty face, they leave the room upset}

Our conversations are deeper and longer and I have quite enjoyed them. Though I do still think about a quiet break from time to time, maybe another week and my selfishness will slip away, or maybe not, I am a sinner after all.

Here are my observations this week...I do think the weekend will be much harder.
1. Isabelle asked approx 67 times in 2 days if she can watch a show. That tells me two things. She thinks far too much about watching tv and we have said "yes" far too many times for her to feel the need to ask us 67 times if she can watch a show (even though we tell her at the beginning of each day we are not watching a show ALL DAY).By today, Friday, she has completely stopped asking.

2. The big boys talked about minecraft all day every day for the first 2 days. They say things like "when we can do minecraft again we will..." and "did you know you could do {fill in the blank here} on minecraft?" I have suggested something to them. If they talked about or thought about minecraft, they should go read a verse in their Bible. I wonder how many verses they will get to in one day. Day 3 and after finally slowed on the minecraft talk, though I do think they still thought about it often.

3. The little boys literally do not care one thing about the tv, they haven't once mentioned it, asked about it or talked about it. They care about food, playing, food, playing outside, food, playing with toys and food. That is all. That suggests to me that it is ME who gets them excited about the tv. hmmmm

4. I rarely think about facebook. Except that, I wish I knew more of my friends phone numbers so I could text them or call them. I will be working on that.

Things to ponder.