My Digital Diet

When we renovated our kitchen a few years ago I was so psyched to build in my “Command Central,” a desk with a bulletin board to keep track of schedules, birthday parties, class lists, and emergency numbers. And of course, the crown jewel of Command Central would be my MacBook laptop — right there at my fingertips whenever I needed it. It would be great! I’d always be only a few feet away should I ever want to check my email or look up a recipe or read my facebook news feed, or see who is being skewered on gawker, or look up a phone number, or order that book Funny Frank Abby has been begging for, or google the woman I’m interviewing with the next morning, or open the soccer schedule that is saved in an Excel file to see if we can indeed plan on a road trip Saturday without missing a game, or see what the weather is tomorrow —  in Hong Kong, too! Where my brother- and sister-in-law live! — or check the traffic on DALS, or the comments on DALS, or see what time Ramona and Beezus is playing or the flight is landing or 30 Rock is premiering….

God. Damn. I spend too much time on the computer. And I hate myself for it. The thing is, when I look at this list, most of the things up there are family-related. Searches and purchases and general organizing meant to make children happier and jam-packed days smoother. But, of course, this is not how my daughter sees it.

“Mom, stop working! Turn off the computer!”

I’m not working! Don’t you understand? I am booking your pottery lessons! And your vacation tickets! And by the way, kiddo, even if I was working, this computer allows me to do it from home so that I may greet you and your sister at the bus stop every day at 3:00. So that I may accompany you to ballet, so that I am free to read Amos and Boris to your class in the middle of the day, so that I may accompany you to doctor’s appointments without destabilizing the fragile atom that is the dual-working-parent calendar.

But all this is gray area stuff. And with kids there ain’t no gray area. To them, I’m either on the computer and disengaged or I’m off the computer and engaged.

So for the next two weeks, while I head down south for vacation, I’m engaging. I’m keeping the laptop closed during my children’s waking hours. (Notice the way that is phrased. If it was closed for the entire vacation this post would be called “My Digital Detox.” What I am attempting here is more like a Daytime Diet.)

This doesn’t mean there won’t be DALS posts. There will be lots of them. Andy and I will be chiming in sporadically, but over the next ten days, you’ll be hearing from some new voices, too — some of my favorite people, writers, muses, and kitchen heroes — all of them parents attempting to do the most primal of duties: feed their young.

If you are not detoxing yourself, I hope you’ll check in to hear what they have to say.

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6 Comments

Christina

Digital Detox……{I shutter at the thought} have a great vacation I look forward to your guest posts! Our family is heading on vacation too…….wireless is sporadic at best up there and I hope mine will be a digital diet and not the dreaded digital detox. *gasp*

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Kim

It is indeed gray, but I must admit our household is happier when we really stick to our “no computer after 7pm” rule. It helps to have our internet connection on a timer to coerce us not to peek. For those moments when we’re getting the shakes.

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Sarah

Thank you for this. Whenever we go on vacation, I make it a point to forget my computer. And I am so grateful to myself in the end!
Have a wonderful trip 🙂

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Amanda

Our wake up call was when my son ran to a computer at the library and started maniacally typing away and snapped at me, “Not now! I am writing an email.” God. I felt horrible, he was imitating me! So our rule (rather my rule) is no computer from the moment we get home from work till the kids are in bed. (Occasional email checks are allowed if he is in the bathtub).

Good for you for taking a digital detox. Looking forward to reading your guest submissions too!

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aryca

Hi, love the recipes, they are inspiring me to cook again after a bit of a hiatus. But what I really want to know is how you did that chalkboard painting on your wall. Did you have a stencil, and if so, how do i get one? I love it and want it in our house.

Cheers.

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