Social Media Break: Day 12

As I try and cultivate new habits for myself, it turns out I am forced to work on the power of patience. My youngest is picking up on the fact that he doesn’t need to be on his device all day.

Hallelujah!

What that means is more Mommy and me play time especially when the big kids are at school. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for getting down on the floor to use our imagination, but I also cherish my alone time. With it being winter, it’s not like I can send him outside to play by himself.

He whines a lot from being cold.

I really do like spending time with him but I realized he is not a solo player and likes his love language of (lots of) quality time.

What I found is that when I was so plugged into social media I could sit down to “play” but also be distracted enough to entertain myself in order to help pass the time. Now that I don’t have that feature for play time, I am learning how to be more patient, engage in play and really be a teacher to my young children. I can’t just check out anymore and that is actually proving to be more difficult than I thought.

It’s all good!

In order to find something to fill both our needs, I give him a time frame. For instance, I will play with you for one hour or play 3 games and then Mommy is going to go meditate or read a book. This way I am spending quality focused time with him but also getting my “me” time in, too. After that time I encourage independent play cause Mommy needs a time out cause she is still working on her own issues to have less distractions in her life.

I give myself constant reminders to be grateful that I have this time to play with him. As my youngest I only have two more years of these big blocks of time with him before he starts going to school all day for five days a week.

It’s such a Catch 22.

It’s much easier to play with the kids who are gone for a majority of the day than the one who is with me most of the time. That saying about absence makes the heart grow fonder is so true. With the older kids, I have more patience with them because I get that time apart. This social media break has brought up other issues like cultivating patience which has always been a weakness of mine. My go to has been to yell and scream as a reaction instead of responding in a calmer manner.

This break has not only allowed me to disconnect from the world of social media but has in fact turned into a self development course all on itself.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!