Phone Down Challenge

I'm In

"Unplug to Reconnect"

I want to invite you to join me in the "Phone Down Challenge" for two weeks.

Phone away for one hour a day
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Here's what it looks like:

*Put your phone down for one hour in the afternoon when you're with your child/ children

Sounds simple, but we know it is likely to be hard.  Stick with me. 

When: an ideal time to do the phone down challenge is when you reconnect with your kids after school or after your work day.
If your kids are home with you all day, choose an hour, maybe after quiet time.

Practical tips:
*turn the phone to silent if possible or use a "focus" setting, allowing calls from only your key contacts
*put the phone out of sight so you're not distracted by it

Benefits:
*create new patterns
*increased connection with your kids
*a chance for your mind to focus on just one thing, rather than multi-tasking
*increased peace and decreased frazzled feelings
*modeling for your kids

You've probably heard many times that we are more "connected" to others now than at any other time in history, YET people are feeling more alone. 
This isn't just a cute saying, "more connected, yet more alone", it's real.  It's happening in our homes, as we repeatedly pick up and stare at our phones, rather than give our loved ones our full attention, our loving eye contact, our time and connection.  What might we be missing, as we check our social media on the side as our child is telling us about their day, or when we skip sitting down together for a meal or snack so we can get one more thing done on our device?

Our kids are learning by our example.  It's sort of sad to see a row of parents staring at their phones at a park, rather than interacting with their kids, or a mom feeding her baby while scrolling her phone.  Those moments of loving eye contact and connection matter.  Our kids will be better equipped to have successful future relationships if we take the time now to show them what healthy connection looks like.   Honestly, our phones distract us from doing this.  Of course there are lots of great things our phones can do, I'm not suggesting we throw them away.  But this challenge is about being more mindful.  The benefits of putting the phone down for one hour a day will far out weight the inconvenience. 

 This challenge is for me as well.  I can get sucked into the trap of trying to get one more thing done on my phone, and somehow prioritize that, over connecting with my child.  I need to be mindful.  I hope you will join me.  

My expectation is that you'll start to see the benefits in these two weeks, and I hope you will want to continue with the Phone Down Challenge.  But for now...can you commit to the challenge for two weeks?
​Click the button and say "I'm in"

I'm in

Here's  a quick link to a video about the phone down challenge:

video