Stripping Down

Could your family live for an entire year without cell phones? How about a week? What if you knew

that by letting go of your cell phone you’d actually be more connected with your family members, would that change your mind? Meridian Living invited over 85 local families to participate in a challenge: separate themselves from their electronics devices for one week and discuss the impact it had on their family. Only eight responded and six finished—including my family of three and the Pence-Brown Compact pros (see the side story, A Compact Lifestyle, on page 27).

In January, Oprah and organizer guru, Peter Walsh, invited families everywhere to a “Stripped-

Down Challenge.” Te goal was for families to simplify their lives by turning off electronics and plugging into a better family lifestyle. One of the rules was no cell phones or texting. As you might guess, most people wouldn’t even consider it. One mother exclaimed, “No cell phone—with three teenagers? NO WAY!!!” Even the families who said yes were hesitant to part with their electronics. So we allowed some exceptions: work-related, must-do business on the phone and with electronics was allowed—during work hours only. No extra internet surfing, Facebook, and so on.

Why limit these modern conveniences? Because in excess, they become a senseless diversion and mind-numbing habit. “You could lock yourself in a room and send a thousand e-mails a day and 100,000 text messages,” says Walsh, “but you are not connected.” According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average youth in America, ages 8 to 18, spends 7.5 hours per day with electronic devices, not counting the average 1.5 hours for texting and 30 minutes for cell-phone calls. Te most device-dependent youth average low grades and report feeling bored and sad. Perhaps parents aren’t realizing how much time they’re tethered too. Granted, techy devices can be a good thing and are necessary to function well in today’s society. It’s the habit of overuse that our challenge helps families to focus on.

Rule #1: No Cell Phones or T exting

Have you ever left the house without your cell phone? It makes you feel like you’re walking

around in public without pants on. Anyone who’s inadvertently left home without their phone can understand why Rule #1 was so difficult to comply with. For necessary reasons, some parents opted to allow limited cell phone use. Texts were acceptable to schedule pick-ups and drop-offs. Other teens could check texts related to extracurricular activities. But the teens promised to use their phones as a tool, not as a boredom buster. Roxanne Patchell, one of the participants, was tempted to play games on her phone during some down time. “I have to wait anyway,” she rationalized, “and it’s not taking time from the family.” Instead, she chose to read a book.

Rule 2: No Electronics

Personally, I struggle with this one. My downfall is checking email and going online. To help me

avoid the temptation during the challenge week, I activated the out-of-office reply on my email. Tose who needed to contact me had my home phone number. And in some instances, the phone conversations were far more productive than my usual email would have been.

My seven year old son loves his Wii, Nintendo DSi,

and favorite cartoons. Tey are by far his first-choice activities. So after our family started the challenge and I was out of earshot, he begged my husband, “Can’t you give Mom some more work?” I ignored his apparent mis-observation (I have plenty to do), bracing myself for some mighty meltdowns.

After Dwayne and Karla Davis, both school teachers

by profession, told their three young children (ages 1 to 7) about the challenge, the two girls burst into tears. By day two, Emma, the second child, begged to “fall off the wagon.” Nana, their grandma and daytime sitter, wasn’t too keen on the extra work involved with bored children. But the girls did begin to entertain themselves a little more and play with baby brother, Jack. To survive the challenge, the family modified the rules a bit, allowing Wii Fit (for exercise only), nightly news, a couple of videos, and a football game. Now that they’ve had a trial run, Dwayne wants to do the challenge again. No one else in the family enthusiastically supports him yet.

Te four Christensen children, elementary and

middle school ages, showed similar outbursts at first. “What does this all mean?” one daughter worried. “No way!” said an older brother. So how did Mom and Dad talk them into it? Sheer bribery, properly labeled as “motivation.” Te promise of an extreme sundae party did the trick. Each day of success earned another topping. Smart!

And there were other unexpected rewards. Dad

Rob shared the family’s challenge experience in a church talk about “sacrifice.” Mom Sarah person- ally reconnected with all her brothers via phone calls. Normally, she’d send out the ever-convenient group email when family matters needed discussion. It took more time to call, but she enjoyed the visits more. Sarah also noted that without all the electronic “stuff,” she could visit more with her husband each evening, and the family went to bed at a decent hour.

So What DiD T hey Do?

If they couldn’t watch tv or play video games, what

did family members do for fun? Honestly, many of the children were bored and upset. Some sense of normalcy returned as they rediscovered books, toys, puzzles, card games, board games—old-fashioned fun that they hadn’t used in awhile. Others became crafty. In our household, our best sanity saver was reading previous issues of Family Fun magazine. We brainstormed dream vacations and discovered great craft projects and made a bird feeder. We even ventured out to see Native American petroglyphs at Celebration Park, near Melba.

Still more creative juices flowed. Ten-year-old

Noah Patchell built a gigantic fort with his spry great-grandma, Dorothy. He went on to make sock puppets and an inch worm that slithered on the carpet. Amy planned simple outings like play dates,

Christensen family found time to play games together when they turned off their electronics.

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