Q) Dear Mom:

Can I have a cell phone? All my friends have one…We promise to be responsible!

Love, your daughters

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I read a blog post not long ago that suggested we should all check our email only twice a day. Twice a day? Is that even possible? It may not seem possible but it sure is needed. Believe it our not, despite our over connected lives and reliance on technology for everything, we actually need some  unplugged time alone and as a family.

Technology has certainly made our lives more efficient and created an explosion of ways for adults and kids of all ages to connect over the last decade. The amount of that explosion at times has seemed almost unfathomable since the new millenium has arrived, hasn’t it!?

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Turn Off Week (formerly TV Turn Off Week) always seems to fall during April Vacation! On the one hand, that’s brilliant timing. With most families of kids in front of screens on the go, you can’t hand pick a better time to ask people to avoid screens for an entire week. On the other hand, with screens so ubiquitous, even avoiding them on vacation is easier said than done, as we discovered last year in New York City. From screens on the limo bus to the city to screens in the hotel lobby, restaurants and Times Square, they were impossible to avoid. While I love the concept of Turn Off Week and believe we have to find a way to plug in less and live unplugged more, is it possible to truly unplug and be 100% screen-less for a week?

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What’s your media diet like? Do you have a healthy balance? Too much? Too little? This month, the FitTips focus is how much media we all use with the goal to find a healthy middle ground so we can be plugged in when we need to be but unplugged to enjoy the greater world for more of our time.

Let’s face it, we’re all a bit too plugged in – adults and kids! If we can unplug just a bit more, our stress levels will come down and our qualities of experiences will go up! On average, we all spend a bit too much time plugged in and viewing screens, adults and kids. By paying more attention to how we spend our time with technology, we can maximize how we use it, become more efficient, and enjoy our off line lives a lot more!

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“Stop the World, I want to Get Off!” I remember seeing that play years and years ago at summer camp. That phrase runs through my mind a lot lately as the pace of things seems to speed up more and more. I recently got one of those “smart phones” – phone, email, camera gadget. It’s really cool and can connect me anywhere any time to anyone. But, do I really want to be that accessible? On the one hand – yes and on the other: NO WAY! Sometimes not being reachable is a good thing.

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