Tech Shabbat

We did our first tech shabbat this weekend. Overall, I’d call it a success. We elected to try 7 PM Friday through 7 PM Saturday, so we turned off screens just in time to eat dinner and do the bedtime routine last night, so no one noticed but me. Big Brother was intentionally elsewhere this weekend so he wouldn’t have to participate.

This morning, we ate breakfast with no requests for cartoons. Our first hiccup came when we left to hunt for a Pokemon Halloween costume for Little Brother. I purchased a minivan when we decided we wanted to be a family of five, and got the built-in TV system since I’m a huge fan of road trips. As soon as we started driving, Middle Brother asked for “my TB.” I explained we weren’t going far, but it was still touch-and-go for a minute. After the first store, he was so animatedly telling me about the animatronic dragons and things that he didn’t ask again. We didn’t find the costume we wanted, but after a while we gave up and went to the park, because it was gorgeous out today. Both littler brothers had a great time, and I made no one pause for pictures.

We did take one picture today. We drove by what I still hope will be our future home. We’ve gotten a couple of extensions on our option period as we hammer out some pretty major repairs that need to be done. That’s the only news on that front, for those of you wondering.

We came home for lunch, and hoped for naps, but no luck in the sleep department. Middle Brother helped get dinner in the slow cooker, and then we played more than I can remember playing on a Saturday in a long time. Middle Brother asked for Pokemon once, but was easily distracted. What surprised me was that as we got into evening, he kept trying to hand me my phone. Evidently, I’m on it when I’m with the littles more than I realized.

I ended up turning on the television a half hour early because Middle Brother was tired, and therefore a terror, while I was finishing dinner. We’re going to have to work through the kinks of no naptime in the future.

I absolutely intend to keep this up. It felt really refreshing, and I felt really present with my boys the whole time. Thanks so much to Tiffany Shlain and 24/6 for giving me a kick in the pants.