3 Things We Quit This Year

And here they are:

• Daily screen time for kids
• Amazon Prime
• Podcasts

*Gasp*.

I cannot believe that I am writing these words myself! Trust me, these are 3 things that we really liked and enjoyed having in our lives, but we weighed the pros and cons and decided to quit all three, at least for a season.

Daily Screen Time

We decided to do a screen free summer this year- starting on June 1st (as soon as school got out). Theo and I deleted our social media apps and we took our TV out of our house and stored it in the garage. We also agreed to not spend time watching shows after the kids had gone to bed.

Sometimes our American culture constantly hounds us that easy = better. If our lives are more convenient, more smoothly run, and just easier in general, then we have a better life. I think that this is a huge lie, and I know it’s one that I buy into on a daily basis. I especially think that I apply this to my kids and screen time. When I put my kids in front of a screen, things get a lot easier for me in that moment. And while I’m not against screen time in general, and I know that every family has different circumstances that warrant a different decision, I have found that for myself, I tend to start relying on screen time to make life easier for me. Not for my kids. For me. And this is something that I am working on and will continue to work on. And I know that different seasons have more or less need for some parts of my life to be easier. So this is not a set-in-stone rule for our family, nor do I think it applies to everyone.

So, we decided the summer would be a good time to try out the screen free concept. It was a bit of a challenge at first, but after about a week, the kids didn’t even ask anymore. It took me a little bit longer to move out of the “scrolling my phone” mode but once I did, my brain cleared up so much and I was able to think and process through a lot more of my life than before.

We did add back in a weekly family movie night, and it became something that we all really looked forward to. We have decided to continue that tradition!

I have heard some people mention that removing screens from their home made their children better behaved and more harmonious in general, and I’m not going to lie…that did NOT happen in our home. Perhaps its the ages of our children or our parenting, but my kids still fought and argued plenty. They have always been creative and play well together, screens or not, so I didn’t notice any huge difference in the children. So sorry to be the bearer of bad news if you were hoping that cutting screens might magically make your children little angels. It just didn’t happen for us 😉

One thing that Theo and I also noticed is that we had a hard time relaxing and winding down at the end of the day. We usually hop into bed together and watch a show, eat a snack and then I read for a few minutes before we go to bed. Without that “together” activity, we really felt aimless at finding something relaxing to wind down with together. We were too tired for a game, but wanted to spend time together and couldn’t think of anything else to do. I know, I know…we need to work on that!

I did notice a huge mental shift in me, though! I was able to think my own thoughts without the constant barrage of what others are also thinking of a situation. I was able to be much more calm and focused and less impatient and annoyed with my kids.

I am SO glad that we did a screen-free summer. It was such a gift to our family, and it did bring a lot of healing and togetherness, even if sometimes togetherness is challenging! We have brought the TV back into our home, but keep it in the playroom and we are continuing to do no screens for the kids except for family movie nights and occasionally on the weekends. Theo and I are still working on our phone habits- whyyyy is that such a hard habit to get a good grasp on?!?

Podcasts

Ok, so lets talk quitting podcasts. I LOVED podcasts. I had so many fantastic podcasts that I would listen to. I would listen to them while driving, while shopping, while cooking, while cleaning, while walking to parks/playgrounds, etc. I often had one earbud in and one out so I could listen to a podcast while also paying attention to my life around me (or so I thought).

Well, I decided to quit podcasts and I’m so glad I did.

I did not realize how much the voices of other people were affecting my brain space. I did not realize how worked up I would get over one errant opinion I heard on a podcast. I did not realize how much I was tuning out of my family just to hear the latest from one of my favorites. I also am not an auditory learner, so despite the massive amounts of information I was hearing, I was taking in very little of it.

When I came back after our screen free summer, I downloaded the podcasts app onto my phone. I opened it up, eager to hear some of my favorite podcasts. I was so overwhelmed by how many podcasts are out there, and had no idea what to listen to that I just closed it down and deleted it again. I am SHOCKED- SHOCKED that I have no desire to be listening to podcasts right now, because as I mentioned above- I basically listened to them all week long. Perhaps they were just filler in my head instead of actual helpful information like I thought they were.

Don’t get me wrong- I still use my earbuds and I have found that I do enjoy listening to audio books. But I mainly listen to them when I am cleaning the Airbnb or on a long drive. I cut down SO MUCH on all the voices in my head, and it was AMAZING.

I also started to listening so much more to music, and that has been a game changer. I have a little radio in my kitchen and I usually have it on from morning until dinner time. I love having background worship music and it really does change the mood of my home!

There were some podcasts that I really enjoyed and did gain insight from, and I may try to add them back into my life. We shall see how it goes.

Amazon Prime

The last thing we quit this year is the beloved Amazon Prime. Helloooooo….is there anyone else out there who does NOT have Prime? I have yet to meet anyone!

So, we actually wanted to quit Prime about a year ago. It’s convenience for deliveries is SO nice, but you know what? It made me feel gross when I would order something and it would arrive the very next day. I am a super empathetic person and the quickness of the arrival time made me wonder how many people had to work in order for that to happen. I just didn’t really like that thought.

We also felt like while Prime has so many benefits, cutting it did save some money. Actually, I am sure that it will save us far more than the fee of Prime. As I’m sure so many people know, I was constantly adding things to my cart that I just never would have even thought about buying had I not been browsing around on Amazon. Even though we didn’t really spend huge amounts on Amazon, I knew that getting rid of it would help me to not just be clicking “purchase”.

Really, I just didn’t love how I say I support small businesses, but very rarely do. I did not like how I was starting to rely on it for all of my needs instead of just getting up and going to the store. And then the rocket launch from the Amazon founder just made me feel like enough was enough and I was done giving my money to Amazon Prime. I am tired of SAYING that I don’t want to support a company like that and I was ready to just NOT support the company.

This was a much more recent decision, so we haven’t felt all the ramifications of it yet. But so far we are still alive and well without Amazon Prime. I can still purchase on Amazon, I just have to pay shipping or buy a couple things together that add up to enough to get free shipping. I never used Amazon photos or music so that doesn’t bother me at all. And we will miss the movies and shows we could watch, but oh well. There are plenty of other things to watch.

I know that this is such a weird blog post to write. Normally, we write about things that bring us joy and podcasts, screen time, and Amazon prime are often all things that bring joy and make life easier. And, honestly- I’m not going to claim that cutting these things out has made life any easier- because it hasn’t. But sometimes cutting things out makes other parts of life come more alive. And usually those are the parts that matter more, the parts that we can’t feel or find when are filling life up with the “easies”. Supporting a local business owner instead of having my stuff arrive in a box. Spending time with my kids, even when I do wish I could have a bit more silence. Cutting out the voices in my head, even when those voices are wise people instructing on the Bible. None of those things are bad, but I’m thankful for the chance to be without them, at least for a little while, to learn how to cope without the things that I find myself leaning on so heavily.

I wish cutting out these things made me a perfect person, one who is spiritually connected to the Lord and one who has a perfect and harmonious home, but the truth is that neither of those things have come true. I think back to people who lived in Bible times who didn’t have screen time or podcasts or Amazon prime- they still struggled with sins and vices! And so do we! And maybe cutting these things out really isn’t all that spiritual, but a fun challenge that allows our family to have more time together and less reliance on the things of the 21st century? I don’t know- those are probably thoughts way too deep for this blog post! All I know that is that we cut these things out and even though we lost some conveniences, we still feel like it’s worth it. Don’t worry- we are planning to keep our electricity and our cars. But, wait- maybe we should try cutting those out next? Just kidding, don’t worry! We aren’t that crazy. Or are we? 😉 😉 😉

What about you? Is there something like this that you have chosen to opt out of, even though the lack of it may seem to make life more inconvenient?