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I unplugged my kid and now


Ginevra
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He literally does not know what to do with himself. It’s driving me nuts. Actually, I didn’t even truly unplug him, I just went back to the “chip” system I had long ago for my two older kids where they got three tokens a day, good for any leisure screen time activity. (One token = one hour; actually I believe it was more restrictive for the older two, but I am trying to be realistic.) 

Let’s not whitewash it; I had gotten to pretty much no limits on screens/electronics in recent history, other than not being on them when other required things were going on. But now I have reeled it back (way back) and DS is aimlessly doing mostly nothing. He is making a chocolate milk right now. He jumped on the trampoline for a bit but it’s too hot today. 

I have faith this will pass, but I need it to pass soon because it really irks me. I want him to go do something worthwhile but at the moment it hardly seems possible he can actually come up with some such thing. 

PS: He has already tried to bargain and I imagine more bargaining will come. 

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It will pass. ? You may need to chant the serenity prayer a few times, but it will pass.

I started light with my kid this year.  We'd gotten complacent over the summer a bit.  So now he's back to 8-3, no screens except for schoolwork.  No video games until the weekend, and then he gets 1 hour.
All of a sudden dusty kits and logic games started to look more appealing. ?  At least the ones I subtly moved to shelves in the living room did!

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He’s playing piano right now, after first bargaining hard for the computer-based FLL music technology program. I said no, partially because then I have to keep overseeing him, and partially because I just want to see what else you can do, for pity’s sake! So he’s playing piano. That’s better! 

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When I unplugged my youngest kid, he started to play tennis against the garage door. Since then, I have replaced a garage door (at our old house) and am slowly going broke, what with lessons, tournaments, and dear God, the shoes...

I don't monitor screen time anymore- I am afraid he will take up polo or car racing.

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I had a conversation with DD. We are rolling back into the school year, where she gets WAY less tablet time than summer. I mentioned that that day she had: painted sets for her next stop motion video, sewed an American Girl doll shirt, read some of her novel, done Outschool homework, and played with her brother. 

"It you had unlimited screen time, what would you have done today?"

"Played on my tablet all day."

So even if she doesn't like it, she gets it at least. Hopefully yours will get there.

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My kids took a month long break from all screens and I cut way back.  It has been wonderful! Now that’s it’s September the kids are wanting to know when they get screens back, I keep telling them I need to decide what the new rules will be first. I’m sort of tempted to just keep going for no screens. 

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Driving us nuts and hoping we will cave is part of their strategy, lol...

We unplugged for 2 months this summer other than a handful of family movie nights.  It was good for all of us, but especially for my son.  He really needed it and it was nice that he could finally talk about something other than a video game!

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8 hours ago, Rachel said:

My kids took a month long break from all screens and I cut way back.  It has been wonderful! Now that’s it’s September the kids are wanting to know when they get screens back, I keep telling them I need to decide what the new rules will be first. I’m sort of tempted to just keep going for no screens. 

We installed qustudio and it’s been a huge blessing for my son. He gets kicked off when his time is up and then he moves onto the next thing with no drama.no more timers “just a minute” “can I finish this thing.” Annoyance that moms making him stop playing. Just poof. Times up.

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You Go MOM!  Hang in there!  It's still summer, another couple of days and school will start.

It's like de-schooling... when you switch public school to homeschool and you take a month off just to do nothing to get them into homeschooling mode.  He needs time to do the change....and it started something with the piano.

Edited by Nicholas_mom
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So embarrassing, but this was me after having Candy Crush on my phone over the summer. I don't even know why I originally installed it. So dumb.

But it means I now know how much it sucks trying to figure out how to use your brain after letting oneself get stuck in something like that and how hard wired the habits become.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Playing the piano is great! That is such a great thing to know!

 

It's also a great time to pick a hobby or two. https://keepersofthefaith.com/contenders-for-the-faith/

Keepers of the Faith has nice cheap scouting PDF's. You can see a sample on archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20120504055548/http://www.keepersofthefaith.com/product/ContendersfortheFaithHandbook

Maybe a regular gametime, and pull out the board games would be fun.

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Let him flounder a bit and then take him to the library to get books and the piano store to get sheet music. On your end, I would also start thinking what you can add into his life: more music lessons? Time in a maker space? He needs something to fill his time and you need to help him with that. But first he needs to get good and bored because before he hits that point, he won't be an active participant in figuring out what to do. He'll be holding out so that you give in and let him back on screens. 

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