Episode 100: 5-Week No Technology Challenge

Transcript

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Welcome to season two of CEO Meets Homeschool. My name is Timia Parker, and I'm both a CEO and homeschool mom to my four boys. Welcome to episode 100. Yay. We made it to 100 episodes. I'm pretty excited. So I'm gonna start. I read this quote and I was trying to find it before I started this episode and I couldn't find the exact one, so I'm gonna improvise as best as I can. But it goes like this, isn't it? It a wonderful thought that you haven't met all your best friends, you haven't made your favorite memories, you haven't sung your favorite song. Some of your best days are ahead of you, and I just thought that would be a fun quote to share. As I launch into episode 100, and some of that applies to me today because I'm in a season of actually making new connections, making new friends, real intentional on the business, entrepreneur, dreamer side of things, and it's really, really filled up my tank on connecting with like-minded folks. And that quote that I read about, it's kind of a cool idea that you haven't met. That some of the people, that could be some of the most important people in your life. So I just wanted to share that. All right. Well, this is going to be live in June and we're heading into full summer. I wanted to just share something that I will probably talk about every year until my kiddos are all graduated and it's what I call the five Week Challenge, and I have my kids take a five week sabbatical from technology. It's very imperfect, but this will be the fourth year that I'm doing this, and we just started it and I will probably also say this. They know it's coming. And basically what I call a full mutiny takes place in our home where the kids like are not happy. But what ends up happening is it's like a detox. Technology's super addictive. I'm sure everybody knows that, but it's. One thing to to say, you know, it's a bad habit and it's a whole nother thing to try to take a break from it for weeks at a time. And I'm really grateful that we have started this. And the kids, they do have a sense of satisfaction that they step away from it, but they also don't like it. I don't know how to word that any other way. I think they're proud of the discipline that I forced on them to take a break. But at the same time, you know, video games or whatever, YouTube videos, whatever it is to me, are addictive. You can just spend hours and hours on that and miss out on so much beauty and real interaction, uh, in life versus just looking at a screen. So. We are, I wanna say I need to check the calendar. We're about three or four days in, I think today's the fourth day. And like I said, there is a mutiny forming against their mother. I have four boys, uh, and this will be our fourth summer doing this, but on that first day that we started, you know, they were used to getting on when they finished school or my kids will just kind of sneak on if I'm not paying attention. I'm pretty sure that's almost a universal rule, but if it's not good for you, that's amazing because if I get preoccupied, my kids will try to get extra time on their screens. So on the first day when we started the five week, no technology, they pushed back, pushed back. I saw bad attitudes. It was not the best day. But what ended up happening, and I just, I love this piece, is they were annoyed with me and this taking a break from technology. So what happened, my kids ended up going outside for like three or four hours and I was like, that's the ultimate goal. So they were so annoyed that they couldn't just sit around and, you know, do their thing and they don't. Well, they shouldn't. They don't get three or four hours, but they like to be around it. So when they have a chance, they could sneak on. So I just thought that the first day, technically, aside from the pushback, was a great result. The kids were out for hours, and it has consistently been that way. Even though the kids will grumble, they have. Grown closer. They've hung out more. They've played, they've done tons and tons of outdoor stuff just in the last four days. So I thought this was worth sharing today on the hundredth episode. It is very difficult to accomplish, but there's huge rewards in it, and if your kids can practice a bit of that discipline of learning to step away. Man, there's just massive positive results and I will swing back by saying it does come back to the parents too, if us as parents are constantly in front of a screen. That's the example we're setting. So I am trying to be on my screen timeless, and I told the kids I'm gonna really try to be off of my phone computer. On Fridays, Friday is what I call a free day. It's kind of a shift where I'm focused more on my kids and kind of creative thinking, catching up on stuff that does not involve a screen. So that's one of the pieces that I'm trying to do to just show them I'm on my phone list. Anyway, I just wanted to share my five week technology and I'll wrap up with two recommendations, just resources as summer is in full swing. One of'em is a book I've mentioned before. It's called Simplicity Parenting. It's one of my favorite parenting books. It's by Kim John Payne. And then a second item is a podcast and it's the 1000 hours outside by Ginny Uric, and I believe it's episode 474. And it's just about technology and how addictive it is. So stuff like that really kind of motivate me to. Push through, even with grumbling kids, have'em take a break and honestly, like I, I'll try to keep sharing the results of it, but it's so wonderful to see them. Not focus on technology, go out and play form friendships the old fashioned way. So I highly recommend it. Have a great day. I'm so glad that you joined me today. If you have found this helpful or just enjoyed following along, it would be a huge blessing to me if you like and subscribe to this podcast. Thanks so much.