- All I wanna do is listen to my crime podcasts
and watch my true crime shows.
- Tell you a scary story?
- [Hannah] You are not as good as Dateline.
- Watch, let's dim the lights.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Hi, I'm Hannah and I'm the world's OK-est mom and if--
Sorry.
Okay.
Hi, I'm Hannah and I'm the world's OK-est mom,
and if you're a parent like me and living in
this day and age, technology is a big deal.
I feel like I use screens all the time as a crutch
and as a babysitter for my kids.
I got screens on screens on screens.
So I wanna try something.
For a whole week I'm gonna cut the cord for my entire family
and hopefully it brings us closer together,
maybe it'll drive us insane,
but we'll see what happens so wish me luck.
So the rules in our house were no TV, no internet,
no use of phones, and no electronic games.
As far as me and Matt, when we're at work,
we're allowed to use our computers,
we're allowed to keep our phones on
in case of an emergency with the kids.
We just weren't allowed to use anything
for any other purpose besides strictly work.
So no browsing social media, no scrolling through
Buzzfeed articles to find out which type of cake I am.
We couldn't even use our phones to
stream audio while we were driving.
Oh, and one more thing, obviously I need to use
my camera on my phone to make this video,
so that's something that was also happening.
They're up early and this is when
I let them watch a little TV,
but we're not gonna do that so I'm gonna get up and play.
They always wake up super restless,
I feel like that's just the thing with young kids,
they wake up and they're like, "Where are we going?
"I wanna get dressed, I'm hungry," they're always hungry.
So I had to get up, too.
Wyatt, we're not watching TV today.
Wyatt.
Don't turn it on.
- [Jackson] Turn it on, Wyatt.
- [Hannah] Don't do it.
Don't be a bad influence.
We're just gonna play today.
- [Jackson] I thought we were going outside.
- Don't be mad.
No, we're not gonna play video games today, remember?
Now, I thought that that morning was the worst of it,
but I didn't realize just how much
we would have to detox throughout the day.
Jackson, put it away!
- Ah!
- [Hannah] Put it away.
Okay, I'm gonna count.
Three,
two,
one.
- [Jackson] You're such a no-no.
- So I can't check my work email.
I'm kinda dying and it's only been,
like, half a day and I'm kind of struggling.
I know I check my work email on the weekends
and I know you shouldn't and I know that
you're supposed to just turn off when you go home,
but I am super high-strung and little bit obsessive.
I think a lot of that stems from being a working parent,
I always worry that things are falling between
the cracks because I'm dividing my time.
I want to call my mom and we don't have a landline.
The first casualty of this week was a plan
that I had made to see my mom the first day.
I was gonna see her this weekend
and so now I don't know what to do.
There was no way for me to get ahold of her
to coordinate meeting her so I didn't even know
if it was worth driving over because I could
just show up and she wouldn't be home.
Sorry, mom.
She understands.
No, she doesn't.
However, one thing that didn't suffer
this week in our house was the music.
We're gonna say bye to Google.
- [Wyatt] Bye, Doodle.
- [Hannah] Any last words?
- [Jackson] We're gonna miss you.
- Well, 'cause we're unplugging her.
Goodbye, Google.
(Hannah laughing)
We are luckily very hipster parents,
we have an old record player,
so we whipped that out this week and just played
a bunch of records and it's always really fun.
The kids get excited about that, too.
Halfway through the first day I was already so bored,
I think we were all so bored,
so what we ended up doing for a
good few hours was just cleaning.
I share a bathroom with three boys.
Oh, man, look at that toilet.
This is amazing, we even cleaned the bathtub.
I think the kids were so mad but I was
really pleased at the end.
So today, the kids are getting a little restless
so we're gonna get out of the house again.
We're gonna go to a flea market.
I love doing flea market days because there's
so much to see and so much to do
and the kids get a lot of, you know, walking and exercise
and they have a really fun time just checking out
all the cool stuff that they have to offer.
One thing I did not think of is, at the flea market,
like, the whole point of going is I try to get
good deals on stuff and the way I do that
is by Googling what it is and seeing
how much it costs on other websites.
So there are these super cute leather boots,
they're $50 and they fit me perfectly.
They're so dang cute but I don't know
if I'm getting a good deal.
I don't know what to do.
I got a few crystals because I'm pretty savvy
with what's a good deal on crystals.
- And I got a lucky penny.
- He found a lucky penny and I didn't get the boots.
I don't wanna risk it.
You know, when you're a family of four on a budget,
you can't go spending 50 bucks on
something that's not a good deal so we'll see.
$250.
I could've gotten those boots for 50 bucks
and they're $250 boots.
Oh my gosh, that is so frustrating.
I'm so mad right now.
Monday was a holiday so we just sucked it up,
I packed everyone in the car,
and we drove to my parent's house
in hopes of finding my sister Stella.
We are headed to the park to exert some energy
'cause we need to get outside desperately.
What better way to distract ourselves
from no technology than by going to the park?
And this park doesn't even have service
so I'm not tempted to use my phone.
He's sleepy.
And the park was really nice.
Honestly, I really enjoy the days that we go there
and just spend the day and have a blast.
It was nice to be able to see my sister.
Overall, Monday was a great day
and I didn't even Instagram about it,
so technically it never happened.
So Tuesday, first day at work with no technology
and right off the bat I knew this was gonna be a rough week.
My roundtrip commute is around three hours
so that's my time that I really utilize podcasts,
but without using my phone and plugging it into my car,
I really had nothing to listen to.
I'm not gonna listen to the radio because,
let's be real, the radio doesn't even play music anymore.
So my solution--
Remember these?
I love Borns.
Borns, if you're watching this,
my birthday's in July and I would really love
a private concert if you're available.
And I also really love Kate Bush,
for anyone who is as old as I am.
So I've got those two CDs and I felt like
I was pretty set for the week.
I know I was so excited to find two CDs
and purchase them for my car,
but of those two CDs there are only about
seven songs that I like so for the past week
I've just been listening to those
seven songs over and over and over.
So now I've resorted to driving to work in silence.
Jackson had a little bit of a hard time
letting go of his technology.
Ah, ah, ah, put that away.
Are you guilty?
You surrender?
How was tonight with no TV?
- Good.
- Are you okay that I took away your game?
I love you.
- I love you, too.
- One thing didn't even dawn on me,
that I didn't realize until that night.
You know what else I realized?
We never text.
We can't text during the day.
Did you even notice?
- Yeah.
- No, you didn't.
I didn't even notice I wasn't texting.
I have no one to text.
(Hannah and Matt laughing)
If people aren't texting about my kids,
there's no one for me to text.
When Jackson gets a phone I'll have someone to text.
Now, Wednesday for me was a really busy day at work,
but it was a different kind of busy.
I was actually in an all day long workshop
from 9 AM to 6 PM.
All day long.
By Wednesday, I was flat out struggling,
which I didn't think was gonna be the case.
I thought it would be the kids having
the hard time and me doing okay,
but the kids seemed to be doing just fine.
And, in fact, they surprised me.
Jackson, all on his own, got out a book
and just started reading while I cook.
How cool is that?
Jackson, you're doing awesome!
What activity do you wanna do?
Stamps?
- Yeah.
- Okay, let's do it!
So Thursday was Wyatt's turn to kind of
have a hard time and melt down.
What do you want?
Wyatt, Google's not on right now.
Whenever I said no, he couldn't take it anymore.
(Wyatt crying)
At one point he actually said to me--
Stop taking your stuff away?
I felt his pain, he was very inconsolable
and he was very upset and I wholeheartedly
understood where he was coming from.
It's tough, I know.
Today is the last day, it's the last day.
It's okay, it's okay, it's okay.
So by Friday, we were all just really sick of each other
and really sick of this experiment,
and that's when expletive literally hit the fan.
I am in the bathroom trying to fix my hair,
I leave Wyatt out there unattended for all of five minutes
and he rushes in here presenting me with a giant
expletive in his diaper that he's ripped off of his butt.
And this is why I need cartoons.
At this point, I will take Caillou, I will take anything.
I need him to watch something for five minutes
so I can do my hair.
There's no one to blame but me.
But the silver lining was something
really special that happened.
You guys will never believe what I just found.
Boom!
Most of you probably don't even know what this is,
but it is a CD holder for all my burned CDs
and I am so excited.
I feel like I just struck gold, I hit the jackpot here.
Okay, I don't have too much to work with,
but I am really curious to try this Camp CD out.
It doesn't even look too scratched,
so I'll give it a couple--
Okay, right off the bat, it's Clay Aiken.
Maybe this is why I didn't have any friends.
What did I learn from this week?
A whole lot.
First and foremost, I learned that while we're not
the worst at utilizing technology
and social media and screen time,
there's a lot that we can cut out of our daily routine.
Two, I learned that I need to step back
from work a little more.
As a working mom I know that I feel
two steps behind everybody else.
I have so much that I'm responsible for
and so much that I'm keeping track of
that I'm always utilizing my time away from work
to catch up on anything I missed,
but I need to remind myself that
that time away from work is my time,
and that time is important.
It's important to just take the time away.
And third, while there is a lot of
technology that's a little excessive,
I think that there's a health balance
and there's a lot of technology that
we use that enriches our lives.
For example, calling my mom in the morning
and calling a friend who lives out of state.
It keeps you connected to the people
who you don't see on a daily basis,
and if you're not overdoing it I think it's just
super useful and important to maintain.
And fourth, I learned that I was a
weird kid with horrible taste in music,
and I'm kind of proud of it.
So that's all I got for today.
I'm Hannah and I have to know,
have you tried something like this?
Have you reduced your screen time
or even for your whole family?
Let me know in the comments, tell me how it went,
or you can text me.
This is a real number and I do read every single message.
I don't always respond to them all 'cause I get a lot,
but I love to hear what you guys have to say.
Now, if you'll please excuse me,
I only have about 50 hours of podcasts
to catch up on on my ride home,
so I will see you guys later.
'Til next time!
Oh, don't need these anymore.
(upbeat instrumental music)
You guys are cute.