Unplugged: Spending real time with littles

Our society is all about technology. And I’ve totally bought in.

I’m 24 years old and I’m a mom to a little boy under one. I use the excuse “I’m still young” all the time to try to validate my reasons for being sucked into the social vortex of my iPhone 6+. But being a young mom has nothing to do with my cell phone. I’m a mom. That little boy sitting on the floor is more important than the iPhone 6+ sitting in my hand. I’ve been really trying to evaluate my time on my phone and social media. I want to be present when I’m with my son. I want to be fully engaged in his learning and growing. I can’t do that when my phone is constantly calling with the ding of a notification.

So I have vowed to take time away from my phone, and my camera. If you follow me and Izzy on Instagram, you may have noticed that we haven’t been posting everyday like I used to. Literally, I would post Every. Single. Day. I loved taking photos of my little man, and I still do. But beyond just taking photos, I was spending so much time saving, editing, uploading, and posting those photos to IG, Facebook, etc. Not anymore. He needs me to spend time with him, without a camera.

So every other day (just about), it’s me and Izzy time. It’s unplugged time. It’s just me, my sweet little boy, and some toys and snacks! We mostly stay home for unplugged time, but sometimes we go for a walk or go to the park.

Izzy loves when it’s just me and him. We play and learn so intently. He gets 100% of my attention because I leave my phone somewhere else. We read, we work on standing, I encourage him to crawl, he sits and throws puffs around and laughs about it, we play peek-a-boo; the list goes on. His interests are so strong and he is so curious about everything. He wants to get in to everything, he wants to hear me read and sing to him, he wants to dance around like a bunch of weirdos! Hahaha!

It’s in these unplugged moments that I find myself too. I find my parenting style, my concerns, my favorite little things Izzy does. I get these sweet, sweet memories that I never would have gotten from behind the lens of a camera, or a phone. So me and Izzy encourage everyone to take some unplugged time to spend as a family! Maybe it’s just me who is social media addicted. But if you find yourself making memories behind the lens of a camera, push yourself to set the camera down for a while, and make real memories in real time.

Let us know how you spend unplugged time with your littles and how you avoid the black hole of Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.