The Parable of the Screen Free Zone

September 9, 2024

Long before my first child was even married, I read an article about Grandparents Camp. With decades of experience as a scoutmaster, I couldn’t wait to stage Grandparents Camp for my grandkids. Years later we have just enjoyed our fourth grandparents camp. Times have changed. My wife and I have declared Grandparents Camp a “Screen Free Zone.” We want our grandkids full attention ALL weekend. An hour into camp, on Friday evening I hear, “Granddaddy, I’m bored. Can I play with your phone?”

The other grandkids are in full play mode in the pool. We will start cooking a great dinner in about thirty minutes. Fortunately, we have told the kids to bring books to read. I knew I wasn’t going to satisfy her desire to escape on a screen. She struggled to clip the screen umbilical cord off for the rest of the night.

I responded with, “Good! Being bored is a good thing because it gives you a chance to think about things instead of escaping into a screen. You can keep swimming, find something else to do, or read a book.” I could tell she wasn’t pleased with my response, but she has heard that sermon before, and wasn’t interested in fighting about it. In a little while, she was having fun with Grandmommy cooking dinner.

The next morning, we have the archery range set up. There are periods of time that the kids have to watch others shoot. She is bored again, and her cousin is bored too. Is this going to be a long weekend? They decide to go look for entertainment after they get their chance to shoot. They make up a game they both enjoy, and other cousins think it looks like fun, and join in when they aren’t shooting. It turns out to be a great morning as the cousins interact and enjoy the morning and the archery and games together. My wife and I praise them for their creativity.

Through lunch and early afternoon activities, there are times when she and her other cousins could get bored. Instead, they started looking for one another so they can talk, or make up a game to keep active. The word, “bored,” seemed to be fading from the weekend as each of the cousins connected with one another.

The afternoon is event filled with a trip to the ice cream parlor and a much-anticipated return to the swimming pool. Thoughts of leaving the pool and finding a screen have vanished. Everyone plays with lots of energy, and complains when I close the pool for the evening to go help prepare dinner. The cousins are a team now. They want to do everything together. My wife and I are enjoying our grandkids and their “Full Presence” at Grandparents Camp. I usually find it takes about 24 hours to cut the screen umbilical cord. We are all enjoying the Grandparent Camp experience, just like I dreamed we would years ago.

The Sunday of camp includes getting donuts, going to church, a spy adventure (a scavenger hunt, but more fun), board games and lots of swimming. On Labor Day, Grandparents camp closes with a formal lunch. We get out the fine china and crystal. They bring dresses, suits and ties. A talent show precedes lunch, and they love dining at a formal dining table they helped set. Martha and I write blessings we share with each of the children. Lunch usually lasts more than an hour, as conversations flow freely, and there are no thoughts of screens.

If you are a grandparent I challenge you to make your home a “Screen Free Zone.” If you are a parent, all your concerns about the negative effects of screens are true. Whatever you can do to limit time, or even go on a screen free fast, will be greatly rewarded. They will fight to break your will. Don’t let them as you benefit as well from a screen free life. We, as adults, don’t like to be bored either, and we opt for the screen world too fast, instead of getting lost in our own thoughts.

In Proverbs 22:6 we read, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” God’s word puts the responsibility on parents and adults to raise the children, and this is really difficult when we let screens captivate their minds.

Have you ever felt that screens rob you of valuable time with children and the people you love? Would your home and life be happier if it you lived in a screen free zone, or at least a reduced screen zone? What keeps you from making these changes?