#YOUR100WORDSTORY: November 2020 | How would you like to spend a gadget-free hour with your family?

Mine being an ancestral house ,where 3 generations are living and me a working woman ,we hardly had time for deep cleaning.This lockdown gave each one in our family, time to spend together in deep cleaning our house.This way we found many interesting old things which were long lost ,recycled many,donated,scraped ,decluttered and redesigned our house effortlessly with simple and steady steps.These hours are still continuing gadget free.Small areas are selected each day and tirelessly, all generations dedicatedly bring in magic ,by thorough cleaning and beautification.Now house looks more spacious ,breathing in life , mainly 70% lesser plastic and more bonded, in an united satisfactory activity by keeping gadgets at bay during the process.Peace & progress around !

Nature Watch,yes daily an hour of thorough no to electronic gadgets and venturing the natural ecosystem around our house is the major family bonding time we have chosen.Watching closely the insects,birds,worms,different rocks,sand particles,soil nature,habits of different creatures etc.It is cent percent fun and fact filled hour,where we family members were able to make a hand note full of interesting points about lives that existed in our property ,other than us.Practical learning through fun has worked wonders in the process.Our souls have turned healthier with this one hour gadget free evening activity.Tried and tested,results are amazing.

During the last decade, when my daughter was a toddler, we sold off our televiision set and enjoyed life sans TV for 11 years. She fruitfully used her time for reading, painting, singing, public speaking skills etc.
However in the current age, our dependence on gadgets has increased. We need these 24*7, thanks to the pandemic.
Yet following gadget free time is not impossible if we try.

I engage my teenage daughter in conversations that are of interest to her. Eg. Recent movies, world news, college life, her friends, her career goals etc. She gets engrossed in the discussions and without realizing spends gadget free time. Small kitchen tasks like cutting vegetable, filling drinking water little purchases from grocery shop in the lane, cycling and fitness exercises are few other methods i use for distraction.
So, spending minimum 1 hour per day ( gadget free) , has become the norm in my house.

Similarly we can keep smaller kids occupied by reading story books, playing indoor games with them like SPELO-FUN, some G.K. quiz by involving the entire family, public speaking, teaching and learning a new hobby or language, making art and craft items for home.decor.etc
Gadgets have become a part and parcel of our life. However if we try, we can definitely keep ourselves away from them for a while everyday.

Gadgets are a part of everyone's life and we all in someway have got addicted to it. But I have not assigned any specific time for gadget free activity but yes I have kept my kids and myself engaged in whatever time they have after online classes. We do cooking, we redecor rooms, we do gardening, at time we play board games, paint and loads of arts and crafts. We enjoy it so much that we forget we need gadgets.The biggest gadget given to us is our own body which can make any gadget work.

The past decade has made us alot dependent on gadgets. We stay connected with our professional commitments, thanks to gadgets, during the pandemic. At the same time,we have become totally dependent on them. To strike a balance, we,in our home,have 3 hours a day, during which we totally stay away from gadgets. We talk to each other, take long walks, discuss about the books read, do some gardening, play board games together and have fun. My daughter plays antakshari with us sometimes. These hours have helped us to bond stronger and our communication has become all the more effective.
ParentCircle is doing a great service, promoting this among many families.

I m mother of nine month old kid and I love to spend quality time with out gadgets with him by playing bat ball with him, encouraging him to crawl while he is on floor, playing peek-a-boo in his walker time, walking and singing rhymes along, taking him out for rides in bike with my husband to temples, showing rhymes book to him and reading for him, coloring some wishes message for him, reading parenting books to guide him in future, making some actions for rhymes while he swing in jhula. I try to avoid gadgets usage when he is awake so that he wont get addicted to it. I express my thanks to parent circle for having introduced gadget free hour to me.

I love to spend time with my son. So every evening we go for a compulsory one hour walk around 9pm without our gadgets. We call it mummy-son bonding time. During the walk we talk about his online school, adolescent issues, his friends, his teachers. I tell him stories from mythology, about different galaxies. Sometimes I even teach him a whole maths chapter. We just cherish our daily bonding.
This year we will just prepone it to coincide with the gadget free hour. What topic shall we talk about? Well, I will decide about it during our walk.

I am mother of two daughters .Being Home maker , I involve my kids in my house hold works like gardening , cooking etc. To make them creative , I teach them to put Rangoli .For this festive Deepavali they are painting Diyas and decorating it .I am feeling proud my daughters have themselves made Diyas using mud and clay and painted it .I also involve them in craft works . They have made science based craft on Rocket.(GSLV II MKIII) , To make them physically fit , I take them for cycling .We all family members sing devotional songs , play carrom , Ludo . We go for weekends trips on historical places . In this way I spend a gadget free hour with my family.