Our Family Survived Screen-Free Week

The average person watches 1,825 hours of television a year. Put another way, it’s the equivalent of 75 straight days, 24 hours a day. That’s over two months spent doing nothing other than watching television.

Add to that a 2007 survey conducted by Harris Interactive, which revealed nearly a quarter of 8 t0 18-year-olds felt “addicted” to video games.

All in all, time spent with screens (television and gaming) is associated with childhood obesity, sleep disturbances and attention span issues.

Now enter the Screen-Free Week campaign. This year, I was tasked with heading up our PTA Screen Free Week committee.

I figured, "Great! This right up my alley. Get the kids out playing and doing things." So I drafted a flyer, sent it to my husband to design and got the proper authorization to distribute it to the families at our school.

Then the full-on impact of what this meant hit me. We would also have to participate in Screen Free Week. Gah! I couldn’t lead a committee and not have our family take part; well, the kids at least anyway. So I broke the news to the kids, and after the initial protests of, “But Sponge Bob!” they acquiesced.

We’re more than half way through Screen Free Week and I have to say, it wasn’t so bad. It was actually, well, a lot of fun. I know! It’s crazy talk but it’s true.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been a few bumps along the way, and if your kids are typically on a heavy dose of tv those first couple days may feel like detox, but if you stick with it, it’ll get easier.

So if you’re brave enough to try this experiment with your kids (and I do highly recommend giving it a go, I think you’ll be surprised at you kids' level of creativity when it comes to finding something to do) let me share how ours has shaped up so far:

Night 1. The kids play outside with their friends until dinner time. After dinner, we take a nice long walk around the neighborhood. Then it’s baths, storytime and bed.

Night 2. After the homework gets finished, the kids find some boxes in the basement and turn them into forts and spaceships. Around 6:30 we head up to the school for game night. The pre-K through second grade teachers are there to help kids make their own board games. It’s lovely to see the community come together—parents, teachers, kids.

Night 3. This is a tough day for me. I had a migraine earlier and I know that evening may be a test. Thankfully, the kids are already in the routine and don’t even ask about the tv. They take mercy on me and are fairly quiet. We head to the library and check out books, run into some friends and then we go out to eat. We choose a place that has no televisions.

Night 4. A fellow mom and I arranged a play date for after school. Teaming up with neighbors makes this so much easier. It’s interesting to think that something simple like turning off the televisions can bring together a community.

Night 5. We get together with friends on Friday nights. The kids play and the grown ups chatter away. It’s amazing when kids have other kids to play with they seem to forget about tv altogether.

So that’s how we’ve spent our Screen-Free Week so far. If you would like to learn more about Screen-Free Week, visit Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.