Tuesday, April 03, 2007

No Media Mondays

I had this *great* idea the other day. I had walked into the living room and there were five people in the room. Carrie was on a laptop, IM’ing incessantly with her friends, Lucas and Jonah were playing separate video games on separate console in seperate corners of the room, Ellis was playing with her new Princess Barbie laptop (for the record, it’s just a Barbie laptop, there is no princess and it’s just about the cheapest thing I’ve ever seen), and Reha was reading a book. Pretty much business as usual at the Deal Family Compound. Except that usually there is only one video game console going at any given time.

What I noticed was that though everyone was in the same room, no one was interacting with each other. It’s like they all occupied the same space, but they may as well have been in different zip codes for all the interaction they were having with each other. I found this troubling on a few levels. And let’s not forget that I was on my way to a different room to check my email.

So I called a Deal Family Meeting™ and instituted a Brand New Policy To Be Obeyed By All. We would henceforth and forever have ONE night a week, wherein ALL electronic devices would be in the OFF position as they like to say on planes for the ENTIRE evening. No video games, no computer, no phones, no TV, no DVDs, nada, zip, nulla. We didn’t necessarily have to do anything together, like play a game, but by gum, we were going to take a break from the relentless onslaught of media in our lives. Playing outside while it was still light out and reading books were also alternatives to weighing our collective belly button lint since obviously without electronics in our lives THERE IS NOTHING LEFT. We are but empty voids, gaping maws which can only be filled by a PS2, the Mythbuster guys, Dr. Who on DVD or MSN chatting. And my email addiction, musn’t forget that.

You can imagine how this went over. The shrieks! The whining! The moaning! The bellyaching! And that was just from the older kids who could articulate themselves properly. Jonah (9) just sort of sat there with his mouth gaping open like a stuck fish. “Wha...?”

Anyway, we tried it out tonight and I must say, it was an awful, awful experience. We let Ellis choose a game for us to play all togther and she chose a Disney Princess Edition Memory Game. The results were predictable. Since she had chosen the game she naturally felt she should be the winner of the game. When she was NOT the winner (or whenever anyone else “scored") she expressed her displeasure in fairly strident terms.

The whole evening predictably ended in tears, bloodshed, a trip to the E.R. and a likely visit from Social Services so they can ask how a piece of cardboard with Belle printed on it can get rammed so far up someone’s hiney.

Although there were moments of calm. I think we’ll try it again next week. At the very least, we’ll have a whole lot more belly button lint to weigh.

1. Heh. Try Monopoly. That always goes well with competitive kids. And lasts until the end of time...literally.

   Have fun!

   Posted by Woman with Kids  on  04/03/07  at  06:48 AM

2. I am so glad there are other dysfunctional families who would prefer to communicate with one another via electronics lest end up hurting one another with card board pictures of princesses.

   Posted by cce  on  04/03/07  at  04:44 PM

3. Good idea!!  I should try that out and see what reaction I get.  I had once institited a “Family Night” but that only last for a while.

   The hardest part of having a No Electronic Night will be keeping me off the computer :-)

   Posted by Sirdar  on  04/03/07  at  06:31 PM

4. Straight to bed, do not pass go, do not talk to family.

   Posted by Carrie  on  04/03/07  at  06:44 PM

5. I have a co-worker who does a Zero Technology MONTH.  He said that the kids fought for the first couple of days, and then they started to play together and invent games together and stuff.  I thought, “That togehterness sounds great!” and suggested a Zero Technology night to my husband, who responded with, “Why would I ever want to do that?”

   He was in a lot of trouble until I figured out that it was an honest question in response to what I’d *said* and not to what I was thinking :-)

   Posted by Jenna  on  04/04/07  at  03:36 PM

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