"No Screen" Nights

We're trying a new thing at our house now that Jeff isn't working as much and we have more time to spend together. I was evaluating how our time is spent and I wasn't happy with how much time we sit in front of our laptops, iPad, cell phone and the TV. So we're implementing "No Screen" nights which basically means that between certain periods of time in an evening, all screens are turned off and we have to find other ways to entertain ourselves. It doesn't always have to be doing an activity together (say, if we both want to chill out and read for a bit), but when it is together, we're going to take turns on who chooses the activity. I thought it would be a fun way to re-connect and spend some quality time together, even if it just means we're sitting next to each other on the couches and reading.

Last night was our first night, and we stuck fairly well to the plan. I came home from work and we made dinner together, then we played with the dog for a while and gushed over how cute he is (that took a long time...he's really cute!). Afterwards, we dusted off our Scrabble board, turned on some music and had a rousing (and by rousing, I mean highly competitive) game of Scrabble. It's been a while since we played a board game and it was pretty fun. Something different than our usual routine of plopping in front of the TV or our computers every night.

So we're going to try this for a bit and see how it goes. How about you? Do you have rules about how much time you can spend in front of the screens? Any suggestions on different things we can try?

-L