3 day Screen-Free Challenge

Are you ready for a 3 day Screen-Free Challenge?

After careful reflection on the status of my garden of life I have concluded that it is in the midst of a drought, the oxygen levels are low, and weeds and pests are slowly making themselves known.  In order to increase the oxygen levels, end the drought, and have a thriving garden once again the weeds and pests need to be abolished.   

The question that then begs to be asked is how?  How do you make your garden of life flourish once again?

At a MOPs meeting last year I had the pleasure of listening to two DJs from YES FM give an amazing presentation about the pest, weeds, and chemicals that can harm your garden of life.  As we entered the room there was three different items on a table.  There was a basket full of fruits and vegetables, a box of Twinkies, and a bottle of Roundup (Monsanto-the name just makes me cringe).  They began the presentation by explaining that the fruits and vegetables represent the healthy or nutritious media for the soul. 

The examples they listed as good, or positive influences were, veggie tales, pbs programs, and Christian radio (Matte West/Amy Grant). Then they directed their attention to the box of Twinkies on the table. 

The said that the box of Twinkies represents the media information that was not necessarily good or positive but wasn’t exactly negative, but neutral.  The examples they gave were Sponge Bob and family friendly music (The carpenters/Frank Sinatra) and shows.  As they moved down the table and focused their attention on the spray bottle of roundup they indicated that it, without a doubt, represents the negative or toxic influences in the media, music, and the like. 

The examples they gave were MTV, Lady Gaga, and violent games. The presentation really struck a nerve with me. I had never realized just how influential even the background music or television shows could be not only a young child, but me as well.   After that presentation I made a conscious effort to only listen to positive, uplifting music in the car and at home.  The result was surprising, my mood, as well as the children’s, seemed to be more uplifting.  I illustrated more patience with the children and them with each other. So, what does this have to do with my wilting garden of life? Everything!

If changing what we watch and listen to can have such a positive result then the hypothesis would then be that, unplugging and going screen free will only multiply the results, and allow my garden of life to flourish once again?

The ground rules:

For three days my family will not watch television, will not be on the computer, will not play any game system, will not watch or utilize anything with a screen.  This also includes my cell phone. When I receive a text message I must call that person, no texting.

I will be keeping a log (old fashion pen and paper style) of our activities and writing down everyone’s feelings and thoughts throughout the experiment. 

I am deliberately going screen free before school starts in order to fully grasp the amount of time, energy, and hopefully emotional or mental influence screen time does have on our family.

Well, here goes.

Signing off, I will post my feedback on Thursday.

If you are willing to accept this challenge or have comments please share those below.