Jackson, (my 6 month old) is starting to reach for things.

This lovely development is fun to watch when he’s sitting on the floor playing with his toys. It’s dramatically less fun when he reaches for a toe that’s been hit by poop shrapnel in one of his blow outs.

This grabbing has already resulted in an errant text, and what could have been a conference call fail when he hit the un-mute button.

Because of this, I’m working on reducing my screen time. I’m going to do my best to limit his use of electronics as he grows up, so I don’t want him to only know the top of his mother’s head while she mindlessly scrolls through social media.

The benefits to reducing time on social apps? My attention span has grown. It’s not back to where it used to be in like 1995 or anything, but I am actively working on not allowing my thoughts to drive my actions every 90 seconds. Scrolling less helps that.

It cuts down on comparisons.

When I don’t have the perfectly framed shots of other peoples lives constantly in front of my face, I can relax about my life.

Pinterest is especially bad about causing me to question everything in my house and my closet and why I don’t spend hours everyday crafting the perfect wreath out of tissue paper and bird seed. Or why Jackson isn’t crawling around in handmade everything.

Instagram is my favorite. But by limiting my time on it, I’ve notice my desire for doughnuts drop (does anyone else feel like their feed is sometimes nothing but doughnuts?! Anyone….?). I’ve also noticed that my love for the simple things is starting to come back. I don’t feel like my day has to be one giant collection of perfectly framed shots.

Sometimes I can be drinking coffee out of a mug that just says “Dave and Busters.”

And finally, by being less social I’m feeling the balance return of me just loving to be me. If I don’t have enough likes to change from names to a double digit number, I’m ok with that.

While gathering my thoughts for this post, I read through some quotes about being yourself and I came across this one…

“Be yourself – not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.”

-Henry David Thoreau

That’s good, isn’t it?

Life goes fast. Having a baby has highlighted that big time. I don’t want to look back on my days with Jackson or even just days in my 30’s and think…I wish I would have just lived outside a screen more often.

Not so say never…just less often. After all, I’m not an animal ;)