No Cell Phone Sunday and RANT!

I am a mom of four teenagers of which all of them have Cell phones. Being a blended family this helps with the other parents being able to get ahold of the kids. Helps when they are away or at sporting events etc. I personally think my whole family probably uses their cell phones more than they should....this includes me.

A little rant....Now a day teens really don't have to wait for anything when it comes to communication. They don't even have to pick up the phone to see what time their game is the next day if they forgot. All they have to do is text. I am a texter too, don't get me wrong but so much is lost in the translation when you cant HEAR the tone. You can constantly put ":)" or " lol's" to make sure others know you aren't upset. Realistically though tone is really lost. How often in this society do we pick up the phone anymore and actually call someone. Its so much easier now to text because you are busy and don't really have time for a long conversation. Seriously....how many of you have text while you are on the toilet? HA! Ryan and I have noticed for awhile now that our kids seem to even be in better moods if they aren't on their phone that much. They are paying attention and don't get restless because you seem to be interrupting what they are doing. And man....watch out if they get a girlfriend/boyfriend because then they swear their significant other will think they are mad if they don't respond. We seriously have had to set a lot of ground rules in our household just to make sure that the world is  going on around them and they aren't paying attention.

Its interesting to me this generation. Maybe I am old at 38 but I remember when we had to run home after school to see if that person we liked called. Who remembers picking up the phone just to see if it had a dial tone because you hadn't gotten that call yet :) I remember thinking I was just going to die if I didn't have a pager. A PAGER PEOPLE! And this was just to get the number to actually call that person ha! We had long drives where we played games in the car or talked to our parents or actually looked at the surroundings. Now I am not saying that we still don't do that but I really think that it has gone to the point where kids are really looking down at a screen most days. IPad....Cell phones...computers....Ds....handheld gamers....etc. I am one of those ppl. Heck I even read books on a Kindle now. Now a days kids think if they haven't gotten a text back to a question that the person must be mad at them. Everything now has become instant and less and less we are having to learn patience. My son once called a house phone and it gave the busy signal. He thought that phone was disconnected because he had never heard a busy signal before. He is 16.

Are cell phones bad? No...I happen to really like mine. I love to post things on Facebook and see what my extended family is up too. I love editing my pictures on Instagram to make my yearbook I do for my kids each year. I love to see Pinterest Ideas that make parties, cooking, decorating more fun. Uhm...I love to Blog! I am always writing emails answering questions from Cushing's Patients and I love to work on my website. I live in a small town of 250 people and advocating for Cushing's just wouldn't work. The internet reaches far more ppl in a day than people in my own town. I text, I Twitter......and all these faucets I love. I usually do these things when the kids are at school but I do get on my phone.

We have a few rules in our household for our teens which helps us.

• At bedtime phones are charged in living room so they can have restful sleep
• IF disrespectful we take phone for 24 hours
• If homework not done we take phone for 24 hours
• No phone use at school unless on break
• Meal times are spent as a family at our table with phones off
• Family time is just that....family time. If we watch a movie no phones
• Long trips you get your phone one way so you can see scenery the other way
• No talking to us with your headphones on
• If we have to shout your name for you to hear us then your music is on too loud

Now we have a new rule. No cell phones on Sunday. Ryan and I really thought about this and think its a good idea. A couple of our friends do this and are having great reactions from it. The kids don't even complain anymore. We brought this up to our kids at dinner and we all agreed (with a little bit of "Are you serious?) that Sundays we will not be on our phones or computers or gaming. The kids gave us grief too of "then you cant blog mom" or "no shopping for bow hunting stuff dad" but all six of us are going to do it. Only part of the phone that will be used is if someone calls and we are home. Sundays we are going to do it the old fashioned way. Are you willing to try this? I guess in this day in time its kind of drastic....but is it really?

I challenge you to take a day with no phone....or see how long you can go without your phone. You might think its longer than it actually is.

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