How often do you have your phone in your hand – scrolling through social media and not even remember how it happened or how long you have been there for?

As a blogger and social media entrepreneur, being on my phone forms a large part of my day, when I am on the go I reach for my phone to answer emails and work on my next posts. But many times I am reminded by my kids to take check of the quantity of time I am facing the bright light in my hand.

This past weekend we took a family vacation down the south coast of KZN, with my brother and dad. We have not spent a holiday all together since last year April.

There was no firm decision to stay offline as we embarked on our trip. It naturally happened. Thanks to my data running out and lack of WiFi where we were staying. And am so grateful for it. Sometime ago I reduced my data package substantially, as we have fiber at home and I did not need to be permanently connected. To be honest I probably would not have been writing this post if I had it. As the temptation to reach for my device and check what is happening would of been too strong.

This is not a social media bashing post, my love for Instagram is real! And I get so much FOMO if I don’t see who I follows posts and what they have been up to. I am grateful for my data depletion, and lack of enough want to top up. It mad me only reach for my phone when a photo or video was a must.

As a parent our children will never know us without a mobile phone close by. It’s all they know, and they don’t know better. When your children are small all they know is that item is taking attention away from them and the focus is elsewhere. You are not a bad parent for wanting to scroll through the gram, your kids will still have a good childhood. But what I do encourage is to monitor your screen time and put the phone down, put it in another room and walk away and go play.

Laugh, be silly, colour in a photo and be in that moment. I did this as much as I could this past weekend, yet I could not resist snapping away, it’s one of my biggest fears that I will regret not taking that photo for memory sake.

Did I miss it? Yes,

Did I love the time with my family? Of course!

Will I do a digital detox again? Definitely

There were also opportunities to take photos to share later to social media that did not need to be shared right there and then.

When all is said and done you need to trust your way, as a parent you know what work for you, and how to raise your little ones. I know I will always have my phone close its part of my life, but there will be times in the day, week or family vacation that I don’t need to connected to the rest of the world.

What are your views on this? Have you left your phone for a weekend? Or had a digital detox.

This post is sponsored by BabyDove