This summer, bond with your kids in a no-Wi-Fi getaway
Summary
Leave gadgets, devices and even board games behind to connect with yourself and your kids
Our no-network holiday happened by chance. We landed up in Panna for four days in the wild. Tired of planning the usual birthday parties, I decided on a camping trip for my daughter’s 13th. Her bag was packed with Nintendo Switch and my iPad. I bet she had been imagining four days of no studies, and of snatching time between treks and nature walks to catch up on games and some of her favourite shows. However, the jungle stepped in and foiled all her plans. As soon as we reached the camp, we stopped receiving mobile network, and the place offered only patchy Wi-Fi. I could see her jaw drop…what were we going to do for four days with no connectivity whatsoever? “I can’t even Google. You don’t want me to find out names of trees and birds that we see here! Fine, I won’t learn anything," came the petulant response.
My teen wasn’t the only one facing this predicament. Another set of amused parents were watching their son turn into a gymnast as he precariously balanced one foot on a wooden plank placed across a little stream, waving his phone frantically in the air. As if the network was some sort of nebulous gas, hovering around us, which could be caught only in one position at one specific spot and sucked into the phone. The first half of the day went in sulking and complaining, but given that there was little anyone could do about the network, we had to make the best of the situation. And we did.
According to reports, globally the average person spends around 6 hours and 38 minutes actively engaged with devices such as phones, tablets, laptops and more. If I close my eyes, my thoughts are a scrambled visual mess—of WhatsApp messages, meeting reminders, social media posts, digital planners. At the end of the day, it feels like the phone is scolding me for the growing list of unread messages. My daughter too spends considerable screen time researching her assignments and creating her project presentations. I promise myself a few hours of digital detox in the day but somehow life and its many demands come in the way. Before I embarked on this trip, even the sound of a notification would trigger anxiety.This holiday turned out to be exactly the time away from the pervasive digital crowd in our lives.
Also read: Isn't it time that Snow White learnt stranger-danger?
Often, while planning a no-network holiday, families cram their baggage with games, DIY kits, and some sort of activity that can keep them busy without their phone. I would suggest doing the exact opposite. Keep the days agenda-free, and go with the flow. Be led by the land that you are visiting. Given that we weren’t glued to our laptops at night watching some OTT content or the other, we spent the holiday sleeping on time and waking up fresh and early. Mornings in Panna were like a visual tableaux—each day unfurled a different scene in front of us. Many metres ahead of the camp lay the dry jungle at the edge of a little pond, and the daybreak brought with it animals of all kinds emerge into the clearing for a sip of water.
Families of sambar deer would come daily, as would the chatty langurs. On some days, a pair of peacocks would become a part of this gaggle. One morning, a set of wild boars arrived at the water body. Accompanying them were birds of all shapes and colours. It no longer became important to search for their names immediately for fear of missing out on instant knowledge, but it became far more significant to simply watch them in their habitat going about their daily business. It was therapeutic to match our rhythms with that of nature. The only gadget we did use was a basic compass to figure out trails in the wilderness. And the night time entertainment was hearing folklore and local ghost stories over meals from the camp team. We spent one morning on a safari, observing vultures in Panna, which have nests on the steep rugged gorges of the region.
It was not just an external stimulus, but something inside us was also changing. I realised just how much we rely on devices to shut out people, to avoid making eye contact or really listen; the screen becomes an escape from even the most basic of conversations. During most holidays, we might all be together, but each one is usually hunched over the phone, still connected to the frenzy of the world, which we had taken a holiday to escape from in the first place. However, in these four days, it was not like we had the most soul-searching talks, but my daughter and I gave each other the gift of undivided attention. We looked at constellations in the night sky and made up stories around them. She giggled and giggled as I ran from a party of geckos that had decided to set up camp in our tent one evening. As we walked around the local villages, we keenly observed the messaging and artwork on the walls around governance, education and health.
Also read: This summer, let kids take charge of the holiday
For most families with kids, the focus of holidays is on learning something. While that has its own merit, some vacations should allow children to just be. There is something old world about surrendering to the flow, about really feeling the different texture of each day. No two days might be alike, and that’s where the charm lies.
Meanwhile, no-network holidays are still works in progress for us. I won’t forget the glee on my daughter’s face when the phone came alive with network again a few kilometres away from the camp. But the very next minute, she shoved the device back into my bag, contentedly watching wheat fields swaying in the summer breeze. Till the next sneakily-planned no Wi-Fi holiday then.
Raising Parents is a monthly column about art culture ideas to inspire both children and adults.
