I'm having that nagging feeling again of needing a Facebook break. I come over to resurrect our family blog for those who do want to keep up with our crazy adventures and what is the last article that I posted about? You got it, too much technology time sucking the life out of living. The kids and I are away for the summer staying with my folks in Newport, RI. I wish I could say that I'm relaxing enjoying carefree summer days with the kids but the reality is I work 40hrs a week and as any working parent knows the summer juggling act is not the easiest. The kids are in camps most weeks to help keep them busy and engaged but there are some weeks they aren't and I'm finding they are spending too much time plugged in on these off weeks. We have one of these week coming up. We're going to do drop in tennis lessons for an hour each morning to get them out and burn off some energy before my work day starts. Now to do the prep work to figure out some things for them to do while I work that doesn't require a grown-ups help, gets them outdoors in the yard and keeps them engaged!
Krause Kids Adventures
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Friday, October 4, 2013
Time To Tune Back In!
Doing the right thing isn't alway easy. I've know for a while that I needed to cut back on my technology use. I'm connected to something 24/7. My job as a virtual Customer Experience Rep is all email based, so I spend 40hrs a week on my laptop just working. When I'm not working my phone is glued to my side. I check in constantly , post on Facebook more then I'd like to admit. I enjoy using Instagram & Pintrest as well. It might only take a quick minute to glance at a post or update a status here and Pin a Pin there but it also snowballs into just one more peek or this link lead me to that link and so on and so on. I'm doing this all while watching my kids practice sports, cooking dinner, waiting for the bus, watching them play at the playground and on and on and on. I'm with my kids, spending time with them, taking them on adventures but I'm not always tuned in and connected as best I can be. The following article really struck home with me and I knew I needed to reevaluate myself. My husband deleted Facebook because it was sucking to much time away from real living. Now it's my turn to take some steps in the right direction. I've exported my Facebook account so I have my whole history saved but I'm finding it hard to completely delete it . So I'm going to do this in stages and see how it goes. I've delete it from my phone and change my Facebook password on my laptop to something hard to remember and don't have auto saved, so it has to be a conscious decision to log in. I've also designating tech free times in our house for myself. Mornings before school and then afternoons after work and school as well (except for recipe hunting for dinner.) When I'm home my phone will not be with me constantly. If I don't respond as quickly as I used to know it's not that I'm ignoring you, I'm tuned in and enjoying my family. I'm resurrecting this blog as a way for our friends and family to still get glimpses into our live and see pictures of the kids and our fun adventures.
Turn off technology, tune into kids, author says
Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press7:35 p.m. EDT September 4, 2013
Psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair says tech -- and self -- absorption disappoints and disregards our children.
We can't make it through the day, let alone an hour, without checking e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and other social apps.
When we are supposed to be giving our kids breakfast, getting them ready for bed or even in the car driving, the lure of technology tugs, making us feel as if we're missing something if we're not always checking for updates.
This is life for many of us in 2013.
Our hyperconnectivity, says Catherine Steiner-Adair, a psychologist who's making headlines for her new book, The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age(HarperCollins, $26.99), is a huge problem.
It's a problem not just for the lack of focus it brings to our own lives, but for what it's doing to our children.
"This is not a simple time, and the big questions about how we use media and tech are not simple," she writes. "The answers are nuanced, and we have to be willing to hold the complexities and think deeply about their implications, resist facile, fast-twitch answers that insist 'the kids are all right.' The kids are not all right. Not completely."
A clinical instructor in the psychology department at Harvard Medical School, Steiner-Adair tells the stories of many of the 1,000 kids she interviewed over four years while working on the book.
Some of them are heartbreaking; they also ring a little too true.
How many of us have parked our kids in front of Dora the Explorer or Good Luck Charlie for 20 minutes of uninterrupted time to make a work call, prepare dinner in peace, get something done?
How many of us have flipped on the Wii or the Xbox and said, "I just need a few minutes, kids," but by the time we return our attention to them, a full hour has passed?
"A lot of the disappointment involves kids giving up. Little moments of promises broken, of feeling let down. 'Dad was supposed to read with me. Mom said she'd play a board game,'" Steiner-Adair writes. "Teens offer an older version of the same yearning: 'I don't see why Mom can't just not take a call when we're talking — she's always telling me that's what I'm supposed to do. I know Dad's busy, but it's like nothing I do is important enough to really matter to him.'"
It's crushing to think about letting down our families in this way.
But, as Steiner-Adair told me in a phone interview last week, we're also letting them down in other really important ways. We're often too permissive about technology; we don't monitor their use closely enough; we don't often set limits kids need, and though they'll never admit it, limits they crave.
Among the key things parents should consider, she says, is to establish unplugged time in the family's daily routine.
"Decide what times of day are going to be tech-free times of day," she says. "And ones I would recommend are: get up before your children wake up to deal with e-mails if you need to. But as soon as you wake those little ones up, until they are at school, just be unplugged. They need your attention. … When you pick your children up, don't be on the phone. Your kids want to know that you are, in fact, excited to see them. And in that moment, they need your eye contact. They need you to smile. They need you to listen and not say, 'one sec,' not be put on hold.
"Bedtime is another time. Just leave screens out of the bedroom. And certainly, meals."
Vacation time, she says, ought to be time off from work, time away from the lure of social media, conference calls, e-mails and texts.
And, now is the best time each year to take a hard look at your family's tech habits, and draft a plan to live by.
"Before school starts, come up with a family responsible-use compact. ... Here's what you're allowed to do on our family computer. Here's what you're not allowed to do. And if you do stuff you're not allowed to do, you'll lose access to the computer. Here's what this phone is for, here's what it's not for. Use it responsibly. If you don't, you'll lose it," she says.
"And then continue to talk about what they're doing. What games they're playing, what sites they're going to, live online in the same way you would about asking your kids who they played with at recess. You know, it has to be part of your ongoing conversation."
As kids get older, they're more likely to try to get away with things, to hide their online escapades. And it's up to us to show them that we're going to be vigilant, that we will have their passwords. And be up front about it.
"Get help setting up filters at home, and on your computers at home," says Steiner-Adair. "They're not always going to work. But most of all, always tell your kids you're doing it so it doesn't turn into a spying dynamic. It's about safety. And if they protest, and say 'This is private,' then, you know, say, 'Uh-uh. It is NOT private. Nothing online is private.' And that's a great conversation right there to have with them."
And work hard on being a parent kids will turn to when they get into trouble.
"Be approachable, be calm, be informed," Steiner-Adair says. "The thing about being informed doesn't mean you need to know everything about technology. You just need to understand life. Help your child get through the current crisis of the day."
Don't, she says, be the parent who overreacts, intensifies drama or who underreacts to problems.
"The young adults I spoke with were concerned about themselves and their future," she says. "They would say things like, 'You know, it's such a paradox: We're the most connected generation ever but we're really bad about being close, and vulnerable and open.'
"I don't know what it will mean (for our future), but I wrote the book hoping it would help people push refresh or push pause. Restart and think about how we all are relating to each other."
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Halloween
We had a fun Halloween! Emma was a Princess and William was a fireman with an ambulance. Mom and dad were a Spiderweb and Batman.
We had a great halloween weekend with parties Saturday and Sunday night that the kids had a blast at! Then Halloween night we headed to hang with friends, Trick-or-treated with the Helie & Steppen families. Then we hung out with the Helie gang and the kids passed out candy, enjoyed some chili and good company!
We had a great halloween weekend with parties Saturday and Sunday night that the kids had a blast at! Then Halloween night we headed to hang with friends, Trick-or-treated with the Helie & Steppen families. Then we hung out with the Helie gang and the kids passed out candy, enjoyed some chili and good company!
Bunk Beds!!!!
Emma and Wil decided about a month ago that they wanted to share a bedroom so we moved them in together and they have been doing well in the one room so we went ahead an bought bunk bed to make the most out of a small bedroom. They were both very excited to get to bed tonight! Here's a quick show of construction.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Healthy Boy!!!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Missed His Nurses!
We had another visit to the hospital today. I was out running errands when Eric called to say Wil was complaining of a headache and tummy pain. These were listed as things to watch for so Emma was off to a friends and we hit the road. Ended back in the ER at the children's hospital. Another central line in, only took two tries to get it in :( Then ran his blood again and good news is his platelets are up to 85,000. Still had a head and stomach pain and while sitting with daddy we got proof when he lost his milk all over the room we were in, poor house keeping kid that has to come clean that up. They gave him some meds to settle his stomach and some extra strength tylenol for his head and little guy started perking up. They sent us home again! Took a side trip for Wil to have a little toys-r-us therapy and then some dark chocolate to go with red wine for Eric and I. Little guy is now asleep and all is well once again. Fingers crossed we can just spend tomorrow hanging at home, cooking, watching football and relaxing!
Friday, October 21, 2011
Home Safe And Sound
After the results from this afternoons blood test we were OKed to head home. Platelets are up from 2,000 to 16,000. They need to get back to about 150,000 to be normal so we are on our way but still not out of the woods completely yet. Biggest thing is to keep this very active 3 yr old calm till we at least go back in on Monday to get another blood test done and see where his levels are at. Bleeding for a big spill is still our enemy right now but we are on the mend. This is something that fixes itself and just because it happened once doesn't mean it will happen again in the future. There is no know reason why the body does this, just a freak occurrence. Again have to send thanks out to my girlfriend for catching this! The Children's hospital for making our stay as comfortable as possible. While we were waiting for lab results today a pink Care Bear stopped by our room to deliver a box that was decorated by other children in the hospital, it was filled with a few toys from the Hasbro Toy Company. A very nice distraction :) for these young patients. Wil was beyond cooperative the entire time, the worse part was when we were leaving and they had to remove the tape from his central line. He screamed louder for that then he did when getting blood drawn!
I have to thank my lucky stars that we left only 24hrs later with a relatively healthy little boy, nothing that he won't rebound from with a little TLC. There were families there who weren't as lucky as us, there children were there for cancer treatments and it really made me think about having to be in the hospital for months on end, praying for the best but everyday fearing the worst. Hug your children a little tighter tonight and take those extra few moments to enjoy the small things. You never know when something in your "normal" world might be turned upside down and things may never be the same.
Ok speaking of taking more time, Wil and I are snuggled on the sofa watching Pooh Bear! Love my snuggle time!
I have to thank my lucky stars that we left only 24hrs later with a relatively healthy little boy, nothing that he won't rebound from with a little TLC. There were families there who weren't as lucky as us, there children were there for cancer treatments and it really made me think about having to be in the hospital for months on end, praying for the best but everyday fearing the worst. Hug your children a little tighter tonight and take those extra few moments to enjoy the small things. You never know when something in your "normal" world might be turned upside down and things may never be the same.
Ok speaking of taking more time, Wil and I are snuggled on the sofa watching Pooh Bear! Love my snuggle time!
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