Unplugged.

I am here to confess that I am not the perfect mother. Not even close. I know this because I am always messing up, and always forgiving myself and learning from my mistakes. I learn to be better and to do better and with each day I can only go from there. One of my biggest downfalls in parenting is that we are too plugged in. Technology is all around us and it is so easy to get caught up in it, and easy to let our kids get sucked in at such a young age as well. I carry guilt over the fact that our tv is always on, our children always want to play on the iPad, and the xbox has become the new latest obsession. As much as I try to detach from the technology, it's very difficult and sometimes just plain easier to let it be so present in our home. We've needed to unplug, and the time has come.

Last week I read this post from one of my favorite blogs, Love Taza. She is a mother of two and has recently decided that she and her husband will 'unplug' on Sundays from now on. After a couple weeks have gone by, she updated and announced that these were the best two Sundays that they've had in a long time. While her unplugging experience alone was enough to inspire me, she also mentions that they've never had a tv in their home. (insert more guilt) But in all seriousness, I wish we were as disconnected as they are!

Yesterday we woke up and put on the tv while I prepared breakfast, per our usual morning routine. During the first ten minutes of being awake Owen asked to play xbox about three thousand times. Okay, so maybe not three thousand but it was certainly enough times to get me to pull the plug. Literally. I am shutting down my blog and facebook and will be selling all our electronic devices this weekend! Alright, so that's absolutely not true, but I did decide to take action. I shut off the tv and announced that we wouldn't use the television, iPad or xbox for the day. If things went well then after dinner we could all clean up together and have a family movie night. While they were extremely disappointed, they followed my lead and we continued on to have one of the best days we have had in a long time! And they did it all without technology! YAY!! Although we haven't permanently unplugged, it's certainly a step in the right direction and my motherly guilt feels just a little bit lighter today!

How do you feel about unplugging? Are you or your family too connected with technology? Maybe try unplugging for a bit too! Here are some photos from our wonderful day together!!

Books!!!

Sight word parking lot game

Coloring

Paint!!

Fixin' stuff...