What a week…I feel like I have missed out on so much the last seven days!
Our pastor spent the past 3 weeks talking about community within the family unit and he concluded this series with the announcement of a Media Fast. What’s that you ask? Well, let me tell you. It means that we fast from all types of Media for a week in order to spend more time with our families. It’s a good idea for sure, but I was not excited to participate, neither was Miranda. We spent a good deal of time talking about how it would work for us. Basically, no TV, computer, or Nintendo DS for Miranda. My list was a little more extensive, unfortunately. No TV, computer, Facebook, Pinterest, Words with Friends, Netflix, Hulu, or e-mail. When I made the list, it was a little embarrassing how much time I waste on media. There were a few exceptions, of course. Miranda was able to get online for her addition facts practice game, which is 15 minutes of her homework each night. I scanned my e-mail every day in order to catch the time-sensitive items, mostly e-mail from Miranda’s school.
The first night, last Sunday, was no big deal for us. We were busy with church, lunch, hanging out with PaPa (in which we actually watched TV, ironically, because we hardly ever watch television with him), then back to the church to help organize for a garage sale. When we came home Monday night, I will say how strange it was to not turn on the TV. Miranda and I ate dinner early and played games until it was time for her to go to bed. I have to admit to “cheating” on Tuesday night when I watched “Batman Begins”. (I made a promise to a friend that I would watch it and let him know what I thought. I don’t watch superhero movies because I think they’re ridiculous and he assured me that I would enjoy this one because it was different. It was okay, I guess.) I did wait until everyone was in bed and I washed the dishes at the same time, so I wasn’t intruding on Family Time, right?
Miranda and I played games and read together every night. Towards the end of the week, she stopped asking when she would be able to watch her shows again. She wanted to know what we were going to play! I really enjoyed spending this time with her and I can see making some changes in the amount of television we watch. I thought the “No TV” rule would be the most difficult part of the Media Fast, but it was actually the easiest. I realized that I didn’t seem to miss any of my regular shows. I only missed the background noise. I talked on the phone a little more than usual and enjoyed Game Night at our Bible Study Group.
I found the week without my iPod absolutely horrendous! My commute to work is an hour each way. That means I sat in complete silence for 2 hours a day while driving in the miserable Austin traffic. There’s only so much you can think about before you start to go nuts! It was an interesting week, to say the least.
I do feel like I missed out on some stuff (after an hour on the computer this morning, I’m all caught up), but the memories of fun times with my family and friends will definitely give me some good reasons to continue to decrease my “media time”.
Chaos is Bliss 