{"id":4911,"date":"2016-06-14T16:14:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T20:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/?p=4911"},"modified":"2016-06-14T16:14:25","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T20:14:25","slug":"52-weeks-talking-kids-techno-free-talk-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/52-weeks-talking-kids-techno-free-talk-time\/","title":{"rendered":"52 Weeks of Talking to Our Kids: Techno-Free Talk Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"52 Weeks of Talking to Our Kids Techno-Free Talk Time\" href=\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/52-weeks-talking-kids-techno-free-talk-time\" rel=\"lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"52 Weeks of Talking to Our Kids Techno-Free Talk Time\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7298\/27395893990_4700becc44_z.jpg\" alt=\"52 Weeks of Talking to Our Kids Techno-Free Talk Time\" height=\"640\" width=\"427\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What is a techno-free zone today? I remember when we would have our nightly living room meetings with our teens and pre-teens before they went to bed at night. We only had a television on a cart in our bedroom closet that we would pull out to watch things together as a family. We had one desk top computer in the dining room\u2014an open room between the kitchen and living room. And that was it. Period.<\/p>\n<p>Techno-free zones were easy to come by for us.<\/p>\n<p>It got harder as the kids got older. We eventually had to declare techno free talks\u2014phones off, etc.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But it is so worth it to set aside some times to talk as a family (or one-on-one) with no technology vying for everyone\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, we have all seen the memes: put all the phones in a basket until the timer goes off then everybody gets theirs back; stack them upside down in the middle of the table and the first one to check theirs pays for dinner; hide the log in until a certain time, etc.<\/p>\n<p>And those would probably work, but here are a few other tips to get you thinking about how you can talk to your kids without technology:<\/p>\n<p>(1) Declare it&#8230;call it by a formal name, put it on the calendar, and make it happen: Don\u2019t forget\u2014tonight at 9&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>(2) Have food! Especially with teens! Food keeps hands busy (so they won\u2019t miss their phones!). And it makes teens very happy&#8230;chips and queso from your favorite Mexican place; breadsticks and cheese sauce from the wholesale club; caramel corn; cookies and milk; fruit and dip&#8230;.doesn\u2019t have to be fancy or expensive, but the more unique to your family, the better. (We like to do cheese fondues! They take a while, and we talk and talk!)<\/p>\n<p>(3) Have it some place special\u2014around the fire pit, with a fireplace going and the lights dimmed, on the deck or front porch&#8230;some place where there are fewer things inside calling for them.<\/p>\n<p>(4) Have it at a restaurant&#8230;.even if it is fast food&#8230;.once you are all seated, restaurants are great atmospheres for just talking. And teens love food&#8230;have I mentioned that?<\/p>\n<p>(5) Make it short&#8230;.if your kids (and parents!) check their phones every ten minutes, don\u2019t expect to have three or four hour techno-free talks. It is better to have them more frequently but for less duration to ensure that kids don\u2019t get bored. Also, if you set it from 9 to 10, you might easily find it going longer as the talking proceeds.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How have you established techno-free talks in your home? I would love to hear your ideas!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a techno-free zone today? I remember when we would have our nightly living room meetings with our teens and pre-teens before they went to bed at night. We only had a television on a cart in our bedroom closet that we would pull out to watch things together as a family. We had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[643,488,633],"tags":[1060,1231,1230,1211,1232,1174,1062,1229,271],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.5.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>52 Weeks of Talking to Our Kids: Techno-Free Talk Time - Character Ink<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/52-weeks-talking-kids-techno-free-talk-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"52 Weeks of Talking to Our Kids: Techno-Free Talk Time - Character Ink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is a techno-free zone today? I remember when we would have our nightly living room meetings with our teens and pre-teens before they went to bed at night. We only had a television on a cart in our bedroom closet that we would pull out to watch things together as a family. 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