On limiting electronics

I noticed that both my husband and I are on our phones A LOT and it is beginning to worry me. In an age of rapid change, I want my daughter to be technologically savvy but I also want her to develop personal connections with the people around her. I worry that as she grows up, TV, Ipads, and Iphones will take center stage in her life and comparisons to others on social media will damage her self-esteem. In an attempt to prevent such outcomes, I have resolved to do the following:

1. Starting from when she can eat solids, we will eat at the dinning room table as a family without our phones or other electronic devices. Growing up, we always had dinner together as a family and I really enjoyed the attention each evening. It allowed me to share my stories and helped me feel connected to my parents. Though I never told them everything, I think being forced to have dinner with them every night helped me open up to them more then if I had ate alone.

2. We will limit her TV/phone/ipad use to 1 hr per day when she is little. My parents only allowed us to watch 2 hours of TV on weekends and though we always wished for more, I can now appreciate this rule in retrospect.

3. Each year, we will try to have some electronic-free days. I hope to do this at least once per month. Though I love documenting our daily happenings, I also think that it sometimes prevent me from living in the moment.

Though these three steps are simple, I think it’s a good starting point for controlling the power of electronics over our lives.