Today was a weird day for my thoughts.
I never knew this about myself fully until today but I'm pretty much a major spaz!
Patrick was supposed to get our new furniture today but this morning i started worrying that it was going to over power our small space, so we decided to exchange the sectional (before we picked it up) for a sofa and love seat, the ones we wanted had a one month waiting period (we had already taken the other furniture out of the living room) and they took up just as much space as the sectional (i actually think more) it was just a different look. Sectional Vs. sofa and love seat. SO, I actually called Slumberland and did just that, exchanged the sectional for the sofa and love seat, threw in a matching chair for the same price and it was done, no problem. i thought i felt good about it but then I got really anxious about it for a number of reasons and got to the point where I just didn't want new furniture anymore (which is still an option I'm toying with). without going in to the details of my totally unneeded, dramatic and very dramotional freak out I called Slumberland and told them i wanted the sectional again....such a fickle girl. I did make sure though that I could return OR exchange it if i hated it. i think most of my anxiety came from the fact that i think the sectional might actually offer the maximum seating and comfort for our living room but if it looks terrible it's my poor husband who suffers he will already have gone there, loaded it up and then having to take it back I hate to ask, but I know ultimately he doesn't mind, even if he does fine my incredibly crazy sometimes.
And now you know me just a little bit better!
But thats not even what this post is supposed to be about!
I have a challenge for all of you mamas out there (if you want to) but this is mostly for me. This may not work for some of you but you can decide if this would be worth your while or not.
I've been doing a little reading about technology and children, mostly screen time. And I've been observing Autumn in front of TVs, computers, phones, ipads, and my Kindle. Although I think technology is super important for children to know how to use because its such a prevalent part of our society and world now, I do think that young children can be very negatively affected by over exposure to screens. So I'm challenging myself to a week Unplugged (in front of Autumn).
For example, when she is awake the TV is off. When she is awake and playing no checking my email or Facebook on my phone or computer. No screen exposure for her at all. and I'm fully engaged. there are so many reasons that I want to try this one of them is because like most babies Autumn is very curious and distracted by things and I want to take away some of her biggest distractions. I also want to work on my actions in front of her.
When I was pregnant with Autumn, I would see parents with their kids at a park or at the grocery store or anywhere and they would be looking down at their phone, completely unengaged with their child and I thought to myself "that will never be me". Yet the other night I was down on the floor with Autumn and she played with her toys while I did something on my computer. what I was doing most definitely could have waited till I put her to bed. I could have spent that time playing with her, but I chose to be somewhere else and I want to be better than that. don't we all?
I know that sometimes we have to do our work and being as close to our children or babies is the best we can do and that's great!
but I guess what I'm really challenging is, do your very best to be engaged with your children for as long and as often as you can.
I'm not going to say that it's going to be a perfect week without any exposure, but I think at the very least this will challenge me to be more aware of my actions in front of her.
