Foggy Brains

We have been on electronics way more than I have felt comfortable with lately. I include myself in this as I have found that I am constantly checking my favorite websites on my phone. Electronics are such a brain suck as well as a time suck too. I have such a love/hate relationship with all things that require batteries/recharging/plug & tear our family's attention away from one another.

I have had a lot on my mind lately (when do I not?), but one of the things that I have been thinking about is electronics and why I am constantly battling against them.  Electronics are so easy to get sucked into. They (sometimes) make my life so much easier. They sooth my kids for a time when I need to get to other things. They entertain my kids and myself. They catch us up on the latest and greatest of the most important things such as the news and weather, Facebook updates, and email.

But why do I feel so yucky inside when we use more than I would like?

I could easily sit in front of the TV all day watching my favorite shows or sit on my phone checking this and that. It is scary how easy it is for me. And it is also scary how much time gets sucked into the electronic vortex.

My kids lose their imagination when they are given free rein on electronics. No longer do they go to the neighborhood park to play soccer or jump on the trampoline or play tag or hide-and-go-seek in the house. Instead they come to me first thing in the morning and ask if they can watch TV or play on their Ipods. Having their pals off for Christmas break only makes things worse because I get the barrage of pleas about how all of their friends are online and why can't they be?

Sometimes I feel like I am the only person/parent in this whole wide world who struggles with electronic usage. I would say with a fair amount of certainty that our home has the strictest video game usage/games allowed policy out of any of my boys' friends. That is a tough place to be in because I easily can look like a Scrooge, but there is something in my gut that tells me not to back down from the limits we have set as a family. I have to follow my gut. (I read once that our "gut feelings" are actually God's way of talking to us. I liked that thought very much and believe it to be true.)

I have also noticed that on top of there being a huge creativity absence in our children when they are plugged in too much they (and I) also have what we call in our house "foggy brain". Messages don't seem to get through to them or they forget what they have been asked/told. It takes a couple of days to detox from that and it can be excruciatingly painful for my kids to come back to earth after being in foggy brain video game land for too long.

I, too, go through withdrawal. It takes me a couple of days to regain my creative mind as a mama. Right now, all I want to do it sit on the computer and check out Facebook and the other blogs I love, but instead I will finish this post and log off of the computer for the night. My brain is screaming at how much I really need/want to see what is going on in the world wide web.

But once we unplug for a bit, I find that life is so much more in line with the life I want to lead. We engage with each other more often. We play together more often. We get so much more stuff done. The kids play together so much better and want to play together much more.There is a sweetness to our days. Instead of wondering where the time went I wonder how we are going to fill up the time because our days seem so much longer without electronics. I feel better as a person. I find that when I am not on electronics (or a very, very limited amount) I am able to focus on the wholeness of my life. I do a better job of taking care of my mind, my body, and my spirit.

For me, electronics represent all things fake about our lives. Being away from electronics represents real living. It represents authentic living. Electronics take us away from everything real and are replaced with half-truths or fake versions of life whether they be in a video game or on the internet. Some people might be able to balance the two worlds well. I am not one of those people and my kids are not those people either.

So, starting today the kiddos and I are going through electronic detox. For the time being we will be very limited in our exposure to electronics. And then I will ease up a bit and we will be over-exposed again and then we will detox again. Aargh!

I hate that I struggle with electronics so much. It is a constant battle for control. It is a fight I wish I didn't have to engage in, but it is a fight I will engage in for as long as necessary because the outcome has the ability to change not only my life, but my children's lives as well.