Going Analog
This will either be amazing or terrible.
By the time you’re reading this me, the husband, and the kids will be on a plane to Aruba. The trip is a combination celebration trip for both my 40th birthday and our 10th wedding anniversary which is later this summer. We thought it would be nice to bring the kids to the place where we honeymooned. We’ll see about that.
The last few months have been really busy and hectic and it feels like I haven’t gotten any good quality time with my family in ages. I’m looking forward to spending some focused time with them all, and to help facilitate actual bonding I’m contemplating leaving the iPads and other screens at home.
I know. Suicide mission. It’s skydiving without a parachute. But I think it will be really good for all of us. The adults will have our phones, but I’m hoping we can even set those aside and keep them out of our faces more than usual. I’m not even bringing my Kindle. Instead I’m bringing two paperback books (Theo of Golden and And Now, Back to You.) This is the opposite of my normal travel practices where I usually only bring my Kindle. And I don’t even think of a Kindle as a “screen” per se, but I’m just really craving analog activity.
My 4-year-old called me out for spending too much time on my computer today, saying that my screen time isn’t good for me. And he isn’t wrong! Work has been absolutely putting me through the ringer and to be honest I’m not sure how much longer I will last at this job. (A story for another day.) So this vacation is much needed and so is time away from a computer screen.
However, I am also expecting edits from my manuscript to come through at some point in the next week or so. At this point I’ve completely forgotten the entire plot of the book so this should be interesting. But I’m not bringing my computer with me on vacation, so I won’t really be able to dig into them until I’m back. I also need to be putting some major effort into book two and I just have not had the time or mental capacity to work on it (another symptom of this job.) I’m doing something completely wild (to me) and bringing along a notebook where I will be attempting to write the first draft of this book longhand. I know some writers swear by this but to me it sounds like a recipe for hand cramps and forgetting what I was going to write between the thought hitting my brain and my hand being able to write it down. We’ll see how it goes!
Is ignoring your children to stare at a notebook or a paperback better than ignoring them to stare at a screen? Have we done any studies on this? At least they won’t be on screens all day. Honestly I think being able to be outside and having a pool and a beach at their fingertips will be enough for them to forget about tablets all together, but just in case we’re bringing a selection of toys (Matchbox cars for the 4-year-old, a Yoto player and Kanoodle for the 7-year-old) and some card games and art supplies.
Wish us luck.