Notes from 'Back to 1977'

June 23, 2013

It is the eve of our first ‘Device Free’ days

Armed with art supplies, games, guitars, saxophone and lots of books – we are headed to the beach house. No wifi there anyway. Putting cell phones, ipad, ipods in laptops in a box ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ tonight for the next 2 days.

I can’t wait to get my sons painting and drawing again – M says he prefers watercolor, so I dug some out of the basement. B told me that he really needed some Coptic markers, so I took him to the art store and he chose 10 – yikes they are $6 a pop! Definitely not 1977 prices! Of course my canvas’ were more pricey than that (when I balked at his markers, he pointed this out to me)

I can’t believe going device-less takes this much planning. I certainly didn’t need to preplan what I was going to do with myself when I was young. Have our lives become so over planned and rigid that we can’t just let things happen? Can we not just curl up with a good book and not feel guilty, or play games together without feeling as if we should be doing something else?

As I’m getting ready to not just loose the devices, but also head to the beach for a while, I realize how many times during the day I check my e-mail, facebook, my shop stats; how many times it is easier to shoot a text to a friend ‘meet me for allergy shots at 2:30’ rather than call her to have a conversation; how easy e-mail is to set up music lessons, ferry reservations, and a shuttle for my aunt from the airport (these are all things I did today by the way). The good things that ‘the digital age’ has brought us are truly wonderful. But the bad and the ugly are there too and I want to show my kids what ‘being together’ really means.

And so on the eve of ‘Back to 1977’, how are we feeling?

B (my 12 year old) is excited “Now we HAVE to play lots of board games!” 

He was worried though about not having cell phones when he is on the beach “What if we get hurt and don’t have a way to call you?” I told him to just run home dripping blood – that’s what I did, back in the day.

I told M (my 15 year old) that I’d posted our intentions on-line

He was horrified “Mom, what if you give other parents ideas? You’ll ruin their kid’s summers too!” In answer to someone’s question, no, he isn’t warming to the idea. I’m positive he is going to try to find the device box when everyone else has gone to bed.

And me? I’m mainly excited to see what my boys do to entertain themselves. And of course I have some new canvases waiting for paint.