Three Things, Week 40.23
Pumpkinfest, teens with smartphones, and cream cheese cookies
It has been one of those glorious fall weeks that still feels like summer, with temperatures in the mid- to high-20s Celsius. Yesterday I went to the beach with some friends, and we soaked up the warm evening sunshine while the kids splashed and played in Lake Huron. Soon enough, the cold weather will be here, and these balmy days will feel like a distant dream. I want to soak up every bit that I can, which is why I’m writing these words outside on my patio.
1. Pumpkinfest + free-range kids
The carnival came to town this past weekend in the form of Pumpkinfest, Port Elgin’s delightful fall fair that weighs and awards the biggest pumpkins (and other vegetables) from across Ontario and even Quebec. These pumpkins are gargantuan, with this year’s winner weighing just under 1,600 pounds. The biggest watermelon, in case you’re wondering, came in at 157 pounds.
On Friday night, the boys begged to go to the midway. Jason and I already had plans, so we let them go off on their own and ride the rides until they ran out of cash. They came home utterly elated, sticky with candy apple residue, faces glowing as they recounted their experiences of the spinning spaceship thing and the Ferris wheel and the whirly car thing. (Pardon me if there are official names for these rides; I do not know them.)
And I couldn’t help but think, they’re probably living a highlight of their childhood right now! This is something that will be seared into their memories, that they’ll look back on nostalgically someday and reminisce about with each other or tell their own kids—about how it felt when the carnival came to town and set up just down the street from their house and they were allowed to wander freely.
And realizing that helped me to let go of any worries about how they’d fare, about getting lost or separated, about what time they’d come home. I knew they’d be fine, and they were. Better than fine. It was a timely little reminder that we have to let our kids go so that they can develop those memories that make their lives more interesting and that make them more interesting people.
2. What do teens do on their phones all day? (Report)
An interesting new report has just come out from Common Sense Media, a great nonprofit that tracks screen time usage for kids of all ages. This report is called “Constant Companion: A Week in the Life of a Young Person’s Smartphone Use” and it’s unique in that it tries to look at what smartphones actually mean to teens these days. It does not vilify them, but rather tries to quantify their use.
What did they find? Typically, participants receive a median of 237 notifications per day, a quarter of which arrive during the school day and 5% in the middle of the night. Almost all participants (97%) used their smartphones during the school day, for a median of 43 minutes. (Not surprisingly, school policies on phone use are spotty and inconsistent.) The most common apps used during school hours were social media and YouTube, followed by gaming. Almost half (45%) use apps with mature or adult-only ratings. TikTok users were the most hooked, with some spending as many as 7 hours a day on the app, often during school and overnight.
While the report is clear about not wanting to judge but simply lay out the data, the title raises some interesting food for thought: Do you want your child’s constant companion to be a smartphone?
Relatedly, the UK is up in arms about the education secretary’s latest effort to ban cellphones in schools. Apparently, Gillian Keegan has said that “mobile phones pose a serious challenge in terms of distraction, disruptive behaviour and bullying [and are] one of the biggest issues children and teachers have to grapple with.” There is plenty of evidence to support this statement.
Critics call it a smokescreen masking real issues like underfunding, teacher recruitment, etc. They claim that schools already have phone policies in place—but if those are anything like the ones we have here in Canada and the US, I have trouble believing they are effective. I applaud Keegan’s efforts, because otherwise there is no way to have consistency across school boards, schools, and even individual classrooms and teachers.
Jonathan Haidt approves, says US schools should follow suit. I have written about this contentious topic before, too: “Smartphones Don’t Belong in Schools.”
3. Cream cheese cookies
It’s hard to segue from phones in schools to cream cheese cookies, but here we go. If you’re looking for a quick and easy cookie recipe, these are really amazing. It’s a Food52 recipe that I’ve made for years, and it’s like a delicious cross between shortbread and cream cheese icing—two rather different things, I realize, but you’ll understand when you try it.
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350˚F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Put the butter, cream cheese, and sugar in a large bowl. Using a handheld electric mixer or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the flour and salt and mix just until incorporated.
Drop the batter by the heaping tablespoon onto the prepared sheets, spacing each one about 1.5 inches apart to allow for spreading.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Don’t overbake or the cookies won’t be chewy. Let cool slightly on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cook completely. Enjoy!
In Childhood Unplugged news:
I saw my book in person for the first time at Indigo, Canada’s biggest bookstore chain, and it was a bit emotional… in the best possible way! Remember that if you haven’t got your copy yet, you can find it at Indigo or anywhere else that books are sold or order directly from the publisher. If you know me, I can sell copies privately and will deliver locally. And if you would please leave a review, that would be MUCH appreciated. Childhood Unplugged has a 5-star rating on Amazon (yay!) and I’d love to get some more on there. It helps enormously with exposure.
Check out this article I wrote for Green Child magazine: “Low-Tech Parenting: Tips From a Digital Minimalist Mom.”
Silver Lake Mennonite Camp hosted a book launch event this past weekend in Kitchener. I gave a talk about how to recreate the experience of summer camp at home, led a Q&A with the wonderfully engaged audience, and signed books. It was a lovely event that resulted in some really interesting connections with teachers in the Toronto Waldorf school system, and I am hoping that will lead to more important outreach.
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