Behold The Power Of The 'One Screen At A Time' Family Rule
About a year ago, I realized I was overdosing on screens. I spent my evenings scrolling on my phone, watching TV, and working on my laptop. One night I looked up and realized I hadn’t seen my family’s faces the whole night. And I couldn’t tell you what I’d been watching, either.
Multiple screens were hurting my ability to focus on pretty much anything, and it was time to make a change for the whole family.
The “One Screen” Rule
So I decided to institute a “one screen only” rule. Why not get rid of screens entirely? Because it’s 2018, and screens are part of life. We already have plenty of restrictions in place like no screens at dinner, while doing homework, or when reading books. But there was no rule about how MANY screens, so I made one.
Working Through ALL the Feels Your Kids Have
It was a bit tough at first for all of us. My daughter HATED it initially which convinced me more than ever that this was exactly what she needed. After a bit of eye rolling and foot stomping, she got on board. Soon it became easy. More than that, it became amazing. A true game changer.
Adding in Family Movie Nights
An interesting thing happened when we ditched multi-screens — we discovered we wanted to watch more things together as a family. So we added a weekly family movie night, and it’s awesome how much of a bonding experience it’s been to watch as a family instead of heading to our separate digital corners. And unlike binge-watching TV shows, movies have an end time so she’s not tempted to stay up too late to watch more. BONUS.
Switching to Redbox
When we switched to using single screens, we realized something else: We spent way too much money on our media sources. Between subscription services and cable, it was killing us. So after some research, we decided to cut the cable cord and add Redbox as a way to watch new release movies instead — because seriously, it’s just a buck and change per movie at the kiosk, and you can’t beat that price.
Mad Love for the Redbox Kiosk
There was an unexpected gift to using the kiosks, too, although I’ll confess to using Redbox On Demand to stream the movies when the weather sucks. But on nice nights, we found that turning movie night into a little family outing to pick up the video and grab snacks was a great way to catch up on the day.
Since starting our “one screen” rule and family movie nights, we’re a happier family. We’re less isolated and better connected. Plus I’ve seen incredible improvement in ALL of our attention spans. My kid can sit still during movies, and I remember what we watch. It’s been a great choice for our family.
Redbox is America’s destination for affordable and convenient new-release movie and video game rentals. Plus the boxes are usually next to places that sell snacks, so winning!
