Comments On Article: To Feel Human Again

Grandma Donna Wrote,

Calling all those that are going to do the tech break month and those doing part break and all others, 

Stephanie, are you still here?  Kimberly, don't go anywhere, if you read this, just post back to let me know that you are getting this message because I am going to post this and come back with another message about the tech break..  Donna

Grandma Donna,

I am planning on doing a post in the morning, Saturday September 20th U.S. time.  I am going to explain some things about how to combine this 1930s study and the technology break to make the break interesting and a bit fun.  This will make it feel more like it should feel without the technology.  I will be working on it this evening and again early morning so I will see you soon.  

This has to do with an early start test week before October 1. Donna

Grandma Donna, I received notification of your reply, and I’ll check in tomorrow to read your post about combining the 1930s study with the technology break

Grandma Donna wrote, 

Thank you Kimberly F, for your reply.  I am happy that you will not miss the get ready start post. :)

Grandma Donna I certainly wouldn't want to miss that post! Thank you for letting me know. <3

Kimberly F at first a technology break felt hard, but now I can't wait. You've made some very good points in your post. I'm eager to learn from this break, and break any hold the technology has over me. 

Stephanie G, one thing I am quite sure of is that I am well-prepared to take a break with many hobbies and skills to fill my time.  I was thinking about how hard this would be for a much younger person who perhaps unfortunately has only filled their leisure time with screens.

Even for me, I think this will be the most tech free I have ever gone since the advent of smart phones and tablets.  I am giving up online news (I don’t watch TV news, but I won’t turn to that either), social media including Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest (in the past I’ve turned to Pinterest when giving up the other two), online journaling — those thoughts will have to be written down by hand, reading forums of any kind, reading blogs, my smart watch, YouTube, the online crossword puzzle and word games I usually play, and probably a lot of other things I can’t think of.  I will check email once daily, update my accounts weekly (but enter transactions as they happen), and use my prayer app.  I’ll allow myself to make appointments and reservations online as needed.  I’ll be using real cookbooks and not looking for recipes online.  I will mostly be reading physical books, but if an e-book I’ve put on hold becomes available I’ll read it, because there are some I’ve been waiting months for.

Grandma Donna - I am not sure of the time difference but I will keep checking. I am so much looking forward to the tech break and to hear what you have to say. 

I have some crochet planned, plus baking and am looking forward to continuing with my spring cleaning and gardening. 

You're most welcome

Dear grandma Donna,

In The Netherlands, we are very afraid at the moment. Nothing is the same anymore. There is war in Europe and that doesn't seem to stop. It is more than three years.

I try to stay calm by not reading the papers every day and doing things for our family. 

Here in The Netherlands a pudding is something which is cooked with milk and for instance vanillapowder or flower and sugar. It is put in a form and left to cool in the refrigerator. We eat this as dessert.

Warm wishes 

Monique Elisabeth 

Thank you for bringing up many things in this post. My husband grew up in a very loud house where it seems everyone competed for their own voice and laughter was always loud and arguing was always even louder. I grew up the complete opposite. There was lots of quiet times and times where the house could be full of people and it was still a time to be able to hear what everyone was saying without a competition. My husband grew up with bad jokes and lots of bad words. I was the opposite and we never would of thought to make fun of others or do bad things to skew others into doing it. Many and I mean many of my friends are always saying they can't get there kids off their phones. I started telling them it's simple-be the parent. They will ask me things such as how do you do it? Well our son doesn't have a phone and doesn't need one either. Parents don't realize nowadays that they can control so much that goes around their house. My husband says they want to be the cool parent instead. Even when we have company come over I keep the house quiet so it sets a standard that we aren't going to be loud and obnoxious. Honestly some homes overstimulate me with either the electronics or the loud talking and my ears just can't take it. We find it mentally exhausts us. I'm not even sure that's a good way to describe it. We just need to focus on doing the right thing at all times even when it's hard. 

Grandma Donna wrote,

Andrea B,  you said that Parents want to be the cool parent, you hit the nail on the head so to speak, a very good answer.  Parents need to be the adult, the parent, the one that sets the example.  You have a very sensible comment post. :) 

Andrea, was your husband able to adapt to more quietness?  The 1st thing I noticed about my husband's family when we started dating was every tv in the house was on even if no one was watching (3 seems to be their number). The 1st thing his mom does in the morning is turn on the tv in the kitchen. 

My husband has to have the radio on in the car and the tv on in the house. It took years for me to get the TV out of the bedroom and that was only because it broke. When my husband finally took it out of the room (it took months for him to be convinced it was really beyond repair) I put a piece of furniture in its place. 

I suggested to my husband we could cut costs by eliminating some things like Netflix but he insists we need them.

Thank you for the kind words.  :)

Yes he has actually quite well after 21 years of marriage, but it has been a struggle at times. I personally feel as if I'm always reminding indoor voice sort of thing. We have learned though from his upbringing many things that "weren't normal" that we have had to adjust to such as cleanliness, order, organization, sound volume, sleep schedule, etc. My family was very clean and orderly, set the dinner table even for a late night snack. Haha. His was they were lucky if they got dressed for the day. I mean complete opposites of things. We had decided a long time ago that we didn't need a tv and our joke is nobody in the family comes over because we don't have one. Some family members have only spent 10 minutes in the whole duration of our marriage in our home. It's so odd to us because we've been to there's a bunch. I think it's because it's kept like how we all keep our homes and it just doesn't suit them well or it's uncomfortable for them because we don't wear shoes in our home. 

One thing I have noticed about their homes is they will find themselves turning on the tv first thing in the day like your husbands family does. I was told by them that housework will always be there, plus we need to do more fun things because we aren't doing fun things supposedly. We truly enjoy all the fun things we do, but ours don't include being loud, drinking, eating out daily, and keeping a messy house. We just choose to get the noise out. But I will say though at our shop we have been known to have the radio up loud because our machinery is really loud, but it helps to make our day go by good especially with good music to drown it out. 

One thing we recently learned is that those who grew up in households like that hold a lot of trauma and the trauma is drowned out by noise and other loud things in a home. It's someone's way of coping. I guess a coping mechanism of sorts you can call it. The person who sets the tone for it repeats the level of noise to drown it out and not have to deal with whatever the actual issue was. The quieter it is, the more the person will think about the said issue and it can force them to deal with whatever that was. We didn't know that at all, but when we found that out we put the pieces together and it has helped us along with many other things we learned that same day from an herbalist. 

Andrea, interesting insights. Thank you. I suspect sometimes the noise is to crowd out thought. 

Your mention of some family avoiding your home reminded of what I experienced.  My husband for years wouldn't go with me to mom's house. He always had something else to do. Honestly, I took it personally but I didn't say anything because I thought why force him to go if he'd be unhappy. THEN  mom got cable. Yeah lol. He started going. I didn't put it together at 1st and mentioned one trip about going and he was like "well, she has cable now". 

I completely agree that the noise is to crowd out thought!!! When you are being entertained in that way it forces you to not have to think and pay attention or make decisions as to what is best.