Family Tech-free Day: The Second Attempt

The Universe is toying with me. Our family technology-free days never turn out the way I envision them. This time, I had it all planned out for April 24th. A Saturday, so that I could connect with my Jewish friends who observe Shabbat. A simple set of rules: no laptops, no cell phones, just to keep things easy.

It started out rather well. We ended up visiting a potential pre-school in the early evening on Friday, but managed to get back home with a half hour to spare before the sun set. Still, in the spirit of the thing, I decided not to use the cell phone, and not to do any work to prepare dinner. So I walked down to our local BBQ joint and waited at the bar while they prepared our meal. Ok, so I watched the Giants game on television while I was waiting. But it was communal! It was on when I walked in the door! And the Giants were WINNING!

Anyway, back at home, my dear husband had prepared a lovely candle-lit table for us after feeding and putting our son to bed (yes, I am nominating him for the Husband of the Year award). We had a lovely meal that evolved into an intimate, animated discussion about where we wanted to be in five years, that unfortunately DE-volved into a nasty fight about where we wanted to be in our immediate future. So, on the positive side, instead of watching yet another episode of Lost on the laptop, we had an important, soul-baring discussion. On the negative, the vibe was kind of ruined by the argument.

Ah, well, on to the main event – a whole day of enjoying friends, nature, and each other. We had yet another birthday party to attend on Saturday, and I had cleverly remembered to print out the directions from the Evite. Too bad I printed out the directions from our house, instead of the Farmer's Market. It was fun to be at the Farmer's Market as a family (I usually go by myself), but buying all of our vegetables in 10 minutes because we were late to the party and had to backtrack to find the place...not so fun. And definitely not part of the theme of slowing down and enjoying life. On top of that, I forgot the birthday present, and somehow never managed to eat breakfast. Next time, I think I'm getting rid of the clock again, and avoiding any plans that require us to look at a clock.

The birthday party was, of course, a lot of fun, and we got to mingle with friends that we see often, and friends that we haven't seen in a while. And we did get to lounge around afterwards, while our son napped. We even got to enjoy a hike in Glen Canyon Park in the afternoon, and anyone who has ever hiked with a toddler will know that we definitely slowed down for that.

I had sent out a last-minute invite to a few friends to join us for an open house dinner sort of gathering in the evening, but the response was tepid and nobody ended up joining us. Just as well, because by late afternoon I had developed the dreaded Tech-free Day Fever. Martin had it last time, this time it was my turn to be floored by aches and chills that had me in bed by 8pm for the next 24 hours.

I wonder if our bodies are just leaping at the chance to do nothing and make sure of it by forcing us to lie down and suffer through an illness whenever I propose a tech-free day. At any rate, we made up for the time with friends by hosting a spontaneous dinner party on the following Saturday evening that was exactly what I envisioned.

Next time, I'm going to do a little more advance planning and try a little harder to recruit people to join me if not in person, then in spirit. Actually, next time we are going to be in the woods with good friends for 48 hours of nothing that plugs in. It should be fun to see one of the guys who designed the iPad try and live without his iPhone for the weekend.

In other news, plans are moving forward for the Main Event – Tech-free Day San Francisco on June 26. I'll be moving this blog to the new Tech-free Day website next week. Details to come.