SMILO 11/14/16
Cheers to all my coworkers this fine brisk & sunny Monday. Today is the kick off to my SMILO’s.
What is a SMILO you ask? Well, it is a DILO but in Sennette style. A DILO for those who haven’t done one before is a “Day in the Life Of”. This will be my “Sennette’s MonDay in the Life Of”. So here goes, my first SMILO.
For the past several days I have been under the weather. I slept a good portion of the weekend away starting with Friday. I attended my daughter’s 3 cheer competitions in style with a sore nose and droopy eyes. My daughter, being the 14 year old that she is, decided to Snapchat some really precious gem photos of me to her friends. Which brings me to my Monday SMILO, technology and teens.
Just when you think you know more than your kid, you realize they will always one up you on Social Media and technology because that is their life. Gone are the times where you can say “you are grounded from the phone and TV”. You take their phone, they have an iPad. You take the phone and the iPad, they have another iPad from the school. You take all three of them, they have a hidden iPod you totally forgot about. At which point all is synced so they never miss a Snapchat message and they don’t care about TV because YouTube is the new TV.
I can’t possibly keep up. There is literally no way to completely torture your kids these days with removing something they love unless you are putting them in a strait jacket and locking them in the house with nothing but books to read. Which honestly, is not a bad idea. I have thought of this tactic many a times.
I’ve been removing all electronics from my teen… who is a great kid – but over allocated. She is a High School Varsity Cheerleader, a National Competitive Cheerleader and on an Unlimited Rec Cheer team. Basically since July she’s been going every day with 3-9 hours of practice, football games and competitions. Somewhere in between she does nothing but homework and Snapchats. She doesn’t know downtime. She sees a message and automatically feels compelled to respond. Which would be GREAT if it was me that needed a response. So for a month she had no technology from 9:30pm until she was awake at 5:45am. (she has to be on a bus to school at 6:35am and practice ends at 9pm).
Did you know she felt well rested and actually was happier? She doesn’t think this has anything to do with the electronics being removed from her fingertips, but I know it does. It truly is amazing how taking a break mentally from electronics does your mind and emotions wonders. So take a moment, and step away from everything for 10 minutes. Reset your brain. It is completely necessary to remain happy. You don’t need to be a slave to technology. It’s here to assist, not take over your life. Although seriously, try teaching a teenager that rule of thumb. It’s impossible. Why is it impossible? They are smarter than you. That’s why.
Country Wonderland 