Have you noticed that some things are easier to teach than others? For example, it’s easy to teach a kid good manners – please and thank you, don’t pick your nose, and cover your mouth when you cough. Even when it’s not so simple, like if you’re children are strong-willed or learning disabled, there’s lots you can do through repetition and consistency to train them.

But what about the more difficult stuff, like abstract concepts and esoteric issues?  Here is a list of compelling issues that I am struggling to teach my own children:

• Faith. Since I struggle with my faith on a daily basis, it’s difficult to teach my kids, especially when I embrace the more abstract concepts but have difficulty or reject dogma.  It’s something I feel is very critical, especially since I believe that faith helps you through the kind of challenges my learning disabled children no doubt face. I did find Parent University: Teaching Faith to our Children” to be a helpful article and embroiling faith into the everyday is something I do, but I’d like my 6 year old to learn more about God, as I know Him.  What I have done is taught her the “Our Father” and try to tell her nightly that God made her.  Little baby steps, I think, may be the only way.
• Diversity. This is going to be covered in school, but I worry because my daughter will be learning that she has Down syndrome. It’s not something we’ve discussed with her, much less discuss the diversity of others.  I have no idea how to approach this.  Amelia doesn’t speak much, so I’m a bit concerned that the day they do this speech, she will be a little freaked out.  I honestly didn’t find too many resources about teaching kids who have disability about their disability, other than to be honest and positive.  I suppose this is a good area of experimentation for me, and of course, future blogging. This video is a great one for all parents to watch as well:
  What I Would Want a Mother of a Typical Needs Child to Know

• Respect. I teach them self-control, but I’d like them to understand that respect is more than just that. I’m a firm believer in learning something because you understand the value of it.  It’s not enough to stop hitting your sister, you have to want to stop hitting her. This great list of 10 Tips on Teaching Respect to Children would be more effectual if I can get my kids to discuss and understand emotions.  I just received a new toy  called Feeleez, designed to teach kids about various emotions with pictures.  Perhaps that will help.  (I’ll be reviewing very soon on Mom-Blog.)
• Pride – with balance. It’s easy to get learning disabled kids to be proud of their successes, but you don’t want it to tip over into self-absorption.  Personally, I believe the pride is at the heart of most misdeeds; however, appropriate self-esteem is the flip side of pride.  it can be a tightrope to walk for a grown up and much more so for a child.  Too much pride can blow up into selfishness, which can lead to lots of undesired kid behaviors or this distorted perception of entitlement that is so rampant in kids today.  The resources I found on this topic were numerous, so I will leave you with Scholastic’s “Too Much of a Good Thing?

There are no easy answers here, but remember to encourage your child as much as you can, model what you want to see in him, and keep your eyes and ears open for good tips on teaching your kid about the important things in life.

What are the “hard things” you struggle to teach your children? What resources have you found that have helped? Share them in the comments.

Between all the hysteria over “swine” flu, or more accurately, the H1N1 Flu, a little thing slipped my mind: all the other viruses swirling around as kids go back to school. My daughter came home with a note that her school, which is quite small, has its first confirmed case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. This particular disease is more common around children, since adults are generally immune, and can be quite nasty.

We need to find ways to protect our children, especially young ones who like to mouth toys and suck on thumbs, and frequently forget to wash their hands. As parents, how can we teach our kids and prevent them from spreading viral infections, flus, and other diseases?

I did some research and put together a list of 10 useful resources for parents in helping their kids develop healthy habits:

1. Kaboose Hygiene Guide: This popular site has a guide for how to get kids motivated on personal hygiene, including dental health.
2. KidsHealth.org: This site includes a parent’s guide, a children’s section, and a teen guide. In the parent’s guide, topics are listed.  Check out the guide to “infections”: it contains a comprehensive list of illnesses by category.
3. If Your Kid Eats This Book, Everything Will Still Be Okay: How to Know if Your Child’s Injury or Illness Is Really an Emergency Yea, I know, long, silly title, but man, do I wish I had this book as a new mom!  An ideal gift for new parents, this book tells what to look for, when you can relax, and when to bring your kid to the ER.
4. Prevent Flu by Teaching Kids Proper Handwashing:  This Suite101 guide contains a  lesson plan for teaching kids proper hygiene.
5. Swine Flu Q&A: What Parents Need to Know.  WebMD interviewed pediatricians to give a comprehensive answer to this question.
6. Enlist Elmo.  You know that Sesame Street had to help out with this one!  Check out the government’s  Flu PSA page for a link to all 4 PSA videos with Elmo and Gordon.
7. The Special Needs Project has a book on personal hygiene written specifically for kids with developmental delays.
8. A Hand Washing Song at The Idea Box.  Look around for lots of other great tips and ideas for teaching kids hygiene.
9. GloGerm, a company that sells hygiene training products, has a list of worksheets for teaching kids proper hand washing.
10. Henry the Hand is an entire kids site dedicated to teaching about hand washing with cartoons, music, and video.

Remember these tips as we enter flu season:

• Vaccinate your kids for the flu at the “right” time in the season. If you hear of an outbreak, that’s the time to get it, since the shot only last 3 months.
• Carry anti-bacteria fluid.  Parents know they sometimes have to wipe off unpleasant things, so carrying around a small bottle of this product will prevent having to resort to extreme measures, like I did.
• Make sure they eat healthy.  Zoe took longer to get sick in the last round of viruses, probably because she thrives on healthy fruits like berries.  In addition, she did not get stomach problems like the rest of us, and I credit her love of bananas.

If you have some great resources for teaching kids about hygiene, or learning more to help protect your kids from flu, viruses and infections, please share it here. Wishing you a happy and healthy Fall and Winter!

A couple of months ago, I stumbled over The Mean Mom’s Club. I have not had a chance to do more than peruse the site, but the term “Mean Mommy” stuck in my brain.

I am so not a mean mommy…

Not yet anyway. But, let me tell you folks, it’s been a rough summer, even with my kids were in summer school for most of it! (They like summer school, too.) By mid-August, I was at my wit’s end between tantrums, yelling fits, and flat out disobedience.

You see, folks, mild parenting can be a pitfall of having special needs kids, particularly if one of them suffers from sensory disorder. You tread gently all the time, you are too positive, and eventually you become the thing you never thought you’d be – a pushover. Then when the rubber hits the road a little too hard, you blow a gasket.

And we all know how well screaming “works” as discipline, right? I had had enough. I decided to toss out the rule of not trying a particular discipline because they “don’t get it”.  When children don’t speak or have attention disorders or other learning disabilities, you believe they often don’t understand you. And, for what it’s worth, on some level, maybe they don’t, but eventually they will. My life is too hectic to have children who won’t pull their weight.

Guess what? They understood more than I gave them credit for. Here’s what I did:

Zoe. Between autism, sensory processing disorder, and her inability to speak, I have not yet incorporated time-out’s for misbehavior. This is problematic, since they were so effective on my other daughter from the age of two. What to do? Well, my neighbor told me that she put her daughter, who is the same age and has autism, in time out and held her there. After a few tries, she understood.

I tried it. Oh Lord, was it grueling! I held her in my arms and she squirmed, and cried, and banged, her head and then…stopped. She suddenly figured out that Mommy wasn’t giving in. After a little while, she calmed down, just in time for me to have to go deal with my other child…

Amelia: The strategy that I’ve been failing at with her is “consistency”. I implemented an “if I say it, I mean it” policy…meaning, if you misbehave, you’ll pay for it, even if you’re taking a bath and you have to wait for your time out. I had believed that the recent ineffectiveness of time-out’s was part of her stretching boundaries. Once I got consistent, though, she fell in line. In fact, I also tried assigning a punishment as a way to get out of time-out and it worked. Boy, did she get that playroom clean! The next day’s time out consisted of her sitting in the corner, spewing venom at the wall but eventually it ended and an obedient, sweet girl emerged.

My parenting lesson for the summer: no more Mrs. Nice Guy. The Tough Mommy gets results that allows Nice Mommy to come out and enjoy her children…and vice versa.

Are you tough with your kids or are you a push-over? If you’ve converted from side to the other, please share your story!

My daughter has been playing with this little red notebook I’ve had for years and last night, as I lay sick on the couch, I cracked it open. I remembered buying this beautiful journal to record my journey as a parent back when Amelia was first born. I was touched by what I managed to get down on the page when I only had one infant and no job:

“Look down now!” yells the nurse in the delivery room, and I do, and out falls my lovely little girl, as if in one piece.  Oh, my heart! She is so beautiful

At 3 months: Today she held my fingers, actually pulled herself from lying down to almost sitting, without me pulling. Awesome!

At 4 months:  I think she laughed, could she have?

And, 2 days later: Yup, she definitely laughed.  We did “flying girl” and out right laughed!

At 10 months: Chris stood her up on the couch. She was holding the back of it.  He let go and viola! She stood for a few minutes, wahoo!

It warmed my mommy heart and brought back vivid, pictoral memories, which I’m really bad at.  Unfortunately, I stopped the diary soon after that last post, and did not pick it up again. Nor did I do one for Zoe; it was too difficult to write because of her temper as a baby and because of Amelia vying for attention.

But now I am back to square one, looking for ways to document and preserve special moments for both my girls as I notice the years flying by.  I lost a bunch of photos from the beginning of the year and that little red diary has been torn apart by the kids.  Documenting things on my blog helps, but I know that computer documents are not safe or long-lasting because of crashes and changing technology.  And even if that diary were in pristine condition,  paper and ink will fade.

So how on earth can I preserve the new  memories I’d like to hold on to?  Precious moments could be lost forever, like Zoe’s absolute pleasure at singing “Wheels on the Bus”, but how it must be done in proper order, or how Amelia loves “Ring Around the Rosy”, or the way Zoe loves to beep my nose, or Amelia’s way of saying, “Come. Come, Mommy”, while patting the couch beside her or holding out her hand.

Perhaps the only real solution is to make use of all the tools I have at my disposal:

• Buy a lovely journal and update it as much as I can.
• Take photos (soon as I get a camera again) and print them, which I never do.
• Create photo books and scrapbooks.
• Type up letters to my kids, print them out, back them up, and post them.
• Keep on blogging – and backing up.

The other problem is finding time to capture the moment, on film or in writing.  It’s not just that life moves fast, but the amount of tasks in a parent’s  life as their kids grow can be overwhelming.  Just finding 20 minutes for quality time is hard enough without making notes, but still, as a writer, I should get to it.  I’m heart-broken that I lost the thread of that diary, and I want to rectify that. I can keep pen, paper and notebooks handy, and once I’m back with a camera, remember to keep it charged and handy.

Have you lost or memories that are rich and valuable to you?  Did you change your way of documenting these memories? Please share your ideas and projects for preserving your own parenting memories.

Friday started out to be a hectic day. I had to work, do groceries, stop by the butcher, go for my annual check up, and I had a meeting.  In addition, I’m trying to commit to revising my novel daily and blog as much as possible.

Getting out of bed, I had the strong “end of vacation” sense.  I was entirely too tired from working late, it was a dark and dreary morning, and as I thought about jumping feet first into commitments and responsibilities, my 6 year old climbed into my bed.

School does not start until September 8th, but big changes are ahead for her as well.  She’ll be in full time school for the first time, and has an earlier bus pickup than ever before, no longer at our front door.  I lay there, day dreaming of being a full time stay-at-home mom: revising my novel all day while the kids were at school, bringing Zoe to MOPS on her days off from preschool, creating a comfy, clean home.

No, I thought, I have to get up!

A little voice deep inside me said, “But why?” Right then, Amelia rolled over, putting her head on my pillow and wrapping her arms around.  I was filled with warm, comfy memories of my first months with her as a new mom, lying in bed and adoring my little blessing while the morning shows rolled on without us.  Just a few more minutes.

It was about 8AM when Amelia jumped up, deciding she was ready for the day, and ran downstairs.  I joined her and looked at the clock: an hour and a half until my doctor visit. I could still get a lot done, so I started the coffee and looked for the dog.  I put on cartoons for Amelia while trying to calm down our rat terrier, and when I turned my attention to chores, she grabbed my hand.  “Come.”  (Amelia has this wonderful way of calling me that I can never resist.)

As we sat on the couch watching Elmo, she hugged me repeatedly and the dog also bequeathed me his undying adoration.  I thought about my day, my novel, my work and my chores and finally the lightbulb went off.  I was doing the most important thing of all right here, right now.  By the time Zoe made her way downstairs with her cavewoman hairdo and droopy diaper, my heart melted.  Chores can wait. There’s a whole day for work and errands, now was time for family.

It was a Super Mommy moment, in my opinion.

I read an article this week about fixing your sense of being overwhelmed by changing your perspective on it.

Baloney!

We over-schedule ourselves and then get ourselves into a frenzy.  I sneer at my husband sometimes for taking the time out to watch a movie or get on the PlayStation.  There’s laundry, after all, and marketing my blog, and potty training, and gee, just look at the kitchen.

I had an epiphany that Friday with Amelia.  I realized I was happy and content with everything in my life, but still felt wrong.  For all my talk of balance, in practice, I had lost my ability to relax and to play. So last night, I went on Facebook, not to network or be productive but to play.  Me, the woman who deleted Microsoft games off her PC, played Farkle for so long I was champion over my whole family.

In the crazy back to school season, don’t forget to take time to relax, to play, and enjoy your kids. Work is way overrated.

Do you feel guilt when you take time to relax or play? What keeps you from cherishing the downtime you have with your family and pets?  Have you too lost your ability to just kick back? Share your stories from overwhelmed parents.

I can’t think of something that might grate my nerves more than “are we there, yet?” Except for a very whiny, oft-repeated “I’m bored!” followed by a dramatic sigh.

Boredom. As parents, boredom can seem mythical, as we’re often so busy working, keeping home, shuttling children between appointments and social activities, and getting some sleep and – gasp! – maybe even some social time in ourselves. We don’t have time to sit around, doing nothing and waiting for someone to entertain us, because every time we sit down, it seems that we’re either exhausted or end up finding 20 new things to put on the to-do list.

But kids seem to get bored all the time. Which really makes me wonder: Are we not giving them enough housework? Could they participate in the tasks we brought home from the office? Isn’t it about time that the seven year olds we know and love make us dinner, for once?

I think that part of kids getting bored is that our society often provides forms of instant entertainment, and when those end, boredom sets in. Gone seem to be the days of sending the kids out after breakfast and telling them to be home for dinner – it’s just not considered safe in most metropolitan areas, and it’s kind of an unusual concept for the generation we’re raising. I mean, outside? All day? What would they do?

Of course, the go outside and play defense to boredom generally becomes moot on a rainy day and you, mom or dad, must team together with the bored spawn to come up with a solution to choruses of I’m so bored. Like?

School’s going back. I’ll bet you’ve already bought all of the books, binders and pencil cases your child will need, right? They should totally label all of their supplies – even if that means using glitter glue, smelly felts and the occasional sequin or two. It’s not your pencil case, so let them go wild – I can nearly guarantee that no one’s going to steal supplies that look like they might have been labelled by the makeup artist for Cirque du Soleil.

Buy them a new book. Or even better, take your kids to the library, sign them up for their own library card, and let them borrow a book suitable for their reading level. Just because they’re not in school doesn’t mean that reading or learning has to end. Bonus points for you, if you can find them a reading club program to participate in.

Let them wander the Internet, with appropriate child-safe filters activated and under your supervision. There’s a wealth of kids’ activities online, from games to educational programs, clips from their favorite shows and previews for upcoming movie releases. They can even find coloring pages and crafts to fill up their off-line time.

If they’re old enough to walk, they’re old enough to help around the house. Or at least, I think so (wink). Get your toddler sorting socks from the laundry, your preschooler can help make a tossed salad, five and six years can pitch in making beds and cleaning bathrooms and kids older than seven are able to help with nearly anything – as long as it’s safe and they have a tall enough step stood.

One final idea for when they’re bored and you’re busy. Hand them a camera and a list of things they have to find, sending them on a photo treasure hunt around the house. I bet you’ll be shocked at the great composition your kids are capable of!

What do you do when your kids say those magical We’re bored words? Add your tested and true suggestions for the community in the comments!

The last time I posted about things I wish I knew before becoming a parent. Today, I want to blog about the benefits that come after you’re a parent.  (And believe me, none of them include money!) Here are 10 great things about being a parent:

1. Most of the crappy stuff will pass. As in, kids not sleeping through the night, tantrums, and potty training (so they tell me).  They all learn and go on to the next impossible stumbling block, and then you’re laughing and saying things like, “Remember how nuts I was when I only slept 3 hours a night?”
2. Big, mushy hugs and kisses. I know they outgrow them but I can always close my eyes and bring them to mind, like the scent of their baby fuzz hair, the softness of their unblemished cheeks, or the tight grip of their baby fist around my finger.
3. You get to watch Sesame Street. Maybe it’s because I was in school by the time it started, but this is my favorite show.  You never know who’ll show up, either.  Recent episodes featured Diana Krall, Brian Williams and Neil Patrick Harris.
4. You appreciate what you have for the first time. Nothing makes you more aware of how little time we have on this Earth than watching a child go from newborn to school girl in the blink of an eye.  It keeps me grateful for every tiny moment.
5. You get to play with toys again. And the bigger they get, the better the toys.  Mr. Potato Head! Barbie dolls!  Light Bright! Only 2 more years to an EZ Bake Oven!
6. You now have a good excuse to buy a high quality camera. It’s important to snap those moments before they are gone too quickly (see bullet #4) and with a camera fast enough to catch them.
7. You now have helpers. I honestly can no longer do all this housework by myself.  I’m recruiting some junior helpers, soon!  Of course, most of this mess is their fault…
8. Other parents make great friends. It’s kind of like a cool club.  You go out with other adults and yack about these weird tiny people who live in your house and ruin all your stuff…
9. You will cultivate patience. The only way to keep your sanity as a parent is to learn to be patient.  I’ve tried it the other way, and it just plain didn’t work.
10. It eradicates your pride. You give up nights out on the town , sports cars, designer clothes, but buy playsets, toy cars , and doll clothes.  You turn off the TV or game console when you want to use it, or tear yourself away from your book to play ring around the rosy.  Suddenly, you have to schedule the time you have for yourself and you didn’t even miss it.

Of course, I’ve left out the best thing: that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you look at them.  Yes, I know they will grow up, ail classes, break my heart, and join the opposing political party.  Yes, I know there will come a time when their Dad and I will look more like the great Bank of Parents or the Free Car Rental Service than anything else and eye-rolling will be their key mode of communication with us. For now, though, being a parent is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.  I hope and pray it stays that way!

Share in the comments: what is the best thing about being a parent for you?

Yesterday, I gave you some suggestions for saving money on back to school shopping for clothes. With clothing making up the second highest expenditure that most households will deal with (the most expensive being electronics and technology, such as laptops and computer software), saving a chunk of cash in that department might cut your shopping bill significantly.

The other major area that we all have to deal with for back to school is supplies. It’s easy for this category to drain the bank if you aren’t smart, if you over-buy and concern yourself more with nabbing the brightest, prettiest supplies (instead of functionality and actual need).

How can you keep supplies’ costs down?

Buy on sale after flipping through your local flyers and checking out the prices of most big-box department and office supply stores. Often, these retailers will compete for the lowest prices, knowing that you might be willing to go to their store instead of a competitor because their lined paper packages are ten cents cheaper.

Buy in a group after conferring with friends who also need to stock up on pens, paper, binders and the like. You can often find great bulk prices at savings clubs like Costco – and then divide up the package (and price) amongst a few.

Buy off-season when you can. After the back to school sales end, retailers will be left with overstock and often slash prices drastically. This is the time to build a stash for next year.

Go shopping at home by arming yourself (or your kids) with their supplies list and a shopping bag. Look through nooks and crannies, desk and junk drawers – you might be surprised how many pens, pencils, rulers, erases, calculators and the like you’ll find. In fact, you might end up with a final list of only a single binder to buy!

Embrace going green by reusing last year’s supplies instead of merely replacing them. Yes, they might not be in pristine condition, but they came home and went somewhere after last year’s school end. They’re still worthy of use, despite how tempting shiny, new supplies are.

A few other tips to save on all back to school shopping, now that you know how to save on clothes and supplies:

Get cash back with rewards cards and programs. If your credit card offers you cash back or points toward a service you’ll use, choose swiping over cash payments. If you’re a Bank of America customer, check out their Add It Up program to get cash back when you shop at specific retailers.

Window-shop online via Googling what you want to buy. Just because one retailer has what seems to be a great deal on a laptop doesn’t mean that another won’t have an ever better one. Do your homework before dropping cash. A simple search of ten sites for “buy Dell mini laptop” might save you a couple hundred dollars – especially if you’re willing to buy refurbished or used.

Keep your eyes open for deals that you’ll need in the future. Yes, technically you’ll be spending more if you buy stock up for the future, but in the long-run, saving those expenses might help you when you need the supplies and are possibly feeling even more of a pinch.

Hopefully, the suggestions have helped you save a few hundred dollars.

Ideally, you’ll have a small, bargain-basement-priced cache of supplies to fill in once last year’s have been used up, your children’s wardrobes will be added to once summer and fall fashions go on sale, and you’ll consider less expensive options for electronics, should you need to invest in them.

With the money you’ve saved, I suggest you buy a latte and book to relax with on that first, silent-housed day of school.

Did I miss any important tips that you can share with our community? Leave a comment below (and don’t forget about our poll in the sidebar)!

According to a study conducted by Burst Media, 48.6% of the over 2100 households they surveyed plan to spend over $250 back-to-school shopping for children attending elementary school, middle school, high school and post-secondary school, despite the recession.

Only 15.7% of households planned to spend less money than they have in previous years, and 24.9% plan to spend more than previous years.

To me, this seems like a huge chunk of change to drop when there’s so many families I know of that are struggling to make ends me – but I understand how the money can flow into retailers’ pockets so easily when I consider that school supplies, clothing and accessories like backpacks, electronic organizers and new computer equipment seem like mandatory purchases.

If you’re like a lot of homes that are feeling the strain of the current economy, you might be concerned about a Christmas effect – spending more than you can afford and indebting yourself to do it. There are ways to cut back on back-to-school shopping, via creative shopping, delaying purchases until great sales come along and decluttering your home a little.

Here’s some tips for cutting back, when they go back.

Clothes

• Buy clearance t-shirts and tank tops that can be layered under longer sleeved wear such as hoodies, sweater, thermal tees and vests.
• Consider delaying back-to-school clothing shopping until the fall wear goes on sale. Just because it’s already in the stores doesn’t mean that typically warmer weather calls for it – if you wait to shop until the winter stock comes into the stores, you’re sure to find great bargains.
• Avoid buying a new coat while retailers are stocking their shelves with the newest designs. Even if your children need a new coat because last year’s is too snug, you can get away with long sleeves layered under kid-friendly vests; shop for warmer wear once the back-to-school events have died off. As if your kids actually want to wear a coat, anyway.
• Check out discount or retail outlets. Often you can find a store that carries the important brands (to your kids) at a fraction of the usual label cost. Sometimes these mean imperfections in the craftsmanship, so check over your finds before plunking down your credit card.
• If your older children are into fashions from another era, or don’t care that much about where their clothes came from, consider second-hand, vintage or consignment stores. Sometimes the fashion statements they can make will come with only a $5 price tag.
• Shop online, using retailers designed to find you the best deals. I like Shop It To Me for tracking down labels in my sizes at great sale prices. They email me daily with sales I might be interested in based on my preferences. Leave me a comment if you’d like an invitation to the site!
• Know when the sales are coming. I’m talking scratch n’ saves, tax-free days, inventory turn-overs and sidewalk sales. Keep an eye on your favorite stores’ habits and be informed as to when the next event is taking place. Waiting for a 30% off sale a week after school starts could be the different between spending $200 on clothes in August or $150 in September (and maybe even getting more).

Today, I focused on how you can cut back on back-to-school clothes’ costs. Tomorrow I’ll give you some tips for scaling back spending on the fun (for me) stuff – school supplies!

Do you have any other suggestions for cutting back on clothing costs for our community? Leave us a comment and share your expertise! And while you’re here, weigh in on our poll about back-to-school spending in the sidebar.

On Monday, I read “Breakfast Can Wait. The Day’s First Stop Is Online” by Brad Stone.  I was kind of horrified by it.  Parents are giving up breakfast time with their children for email, Twitter, and Facebook.

Look, I love my Twitter account and am rapidly starting to love Facebook.  I blog a lot, and I can be  as obsessive as the next person with checking my email.  But I honestly was shocked at what parents are letting their kids get away with.  One example from the article: a mom got her daughter an Apple laptop and she missed her school bus three times in the weeks after.

OK, I know it’s seriously not cool, but isn’t the correct response to that to take away the laptop?

How much has technology eroded the American family?  I ponder this as I take stock of my 4 monitors, 2 PC’s, one laptop, Wii, and PS3.  At least as a person who works at home, I’ve resisted the cell phone, but my husband is attached at the hip to his Blackberry.  Unless there is some kind of emergency (I’m nearing a deadline, for example), I don’t even approach my computers until I start work.

Digging a little deeper, I discovered that an article about a University of Southern California study. The  Annenberg Center for the Digital Future reported in June that nearly three times as many families are spending less time together now than they did in 2006.  That’s family members, not friends.  Social networks, on the other hand, are booming.  Twitter’s user base, for example, has doubled since August, 2008.

As parents, how can we combat the lure of technology, especially if we find it hard to resist ourselves?  Like everything else in parenting, the example begins with  us.  If you want to curb your kids’ technology diet, start examining your own technology habits.

A few years ago, I worked on the 12-week self-help book for creatives, “The Artist’s Way.”  During one of the weeks, you are supposed to do a media diet: no computers, TV or any media for 7 days.  Almost everyone fails at this, but it’s worth mentioning to show how little we can go without that technology crutch.  If a 7 day media fast is too extreme for you, then try one day. Work usage is fine, but eliminate all personal use for the entire family for one day.  Pretend it’s a 24 hour power outage.  As someone who’s been through real 12+ hour power outages, you’d be surprised how much fun can be had. What would you do?

Think of all the time you could free up.  You could talk to your kids.  They could enjoy the meal  you made.  You might actually find some alone time with your spouse or, heaven forbid, with yourself.  You could sit run a sprinkler in your yard and if it rains, come back inside and do some funs crafts with the little ones.  You could catch up with friends, neighbors and family. You could have a party.

I know what you’re thinking: it will never happen.  You’re right, it won’t, if you don’t make it happen. Take back your family and free them from the chains of technology.

I DARE YOU: commit to one media-free or technology-free day for your whole family this summer.  DOUBLE DARE: commit to two days.  Share your experiences!