A Small Screen-Free Win From the Week
Taken from Scott Houghton’s Substack “The Screen-Free Dad”
Hey,
It has been a while since I have hit “send” here. Life with two little kids, a full-time job, and preparing for a new baby coming in February (please pray for me) has been a lot. I have not stopped thinking about The Screen-Free Dad, though, or about what it could mean for dads like us who are trying to be more present without pretending life is calm or easy.
So instead of a big announcement, I want to share one small screen-free win from our house.
The other day, my 4-year-old came up to me while I was working and nudged my arm. I looked down and saw something that made me smile. In her hand was a small slip of paper that said, “Try to write a short story in just six words.”
The Boredom Box: Where it all started.
That might not mean a lot to you, but it meant a lot to me.
Earlier this year, I introduced the idea of the Boredom Box. It is a simple box filled with over 200 little slips of paper, just like this one my 4-year-old showed me, with screen-free ideas to do when you are bored.
Over the last six months, life has been absolutely insane, and, reluctantly, I have let The Screen-Free Dad fall to the wayside. But even while I have been neglecting the project, one simple thing has persisted.
Roughly two to three times per week, my 4-year-old walks up to me and hands me a slip of paper with a screen-free activity on it for us to do. Sometimes it is quick and easy. Sometimes it turns into a bigger moment. Sometimes I am tired and do not really feel like doing it, but we do it anyway.
This simple Boredom Box continues to have a strong impact on our family, even when I am not actively “working on” Screen-Free Dad as a project.
That is the part that really hits me. I can step away from posting. I can miss weeks or months of writing. But one small system we set up together keeps nudging us back toward connection.
So my invitation for you is simple: pull your Boredom Box back out and remind your kids it is still there, ready to be used. And if you do not have one yet, you can grab everything you need to make your own at this link.
How to Build Your Own Boredom Box
It includes the same style of prompts my daughter has been handing me, plus a simple template you can adjust for your family.
Once you have it printed and ready, here is what comes next:
Grab a box, jar, or bowl. It does not need to look nice.
Sit down with your kids and look through the screen-free ideas together.
Cut out the slips of paper from the download (and add any of your own ideas to the blank ones) and toss them in the box.
A few times a week, let your kid pick one slip and commit to doing whatever it says, even if it only lasts ten minutes.
Remember, it’s not about perfection or creating extravagant moments with your kids. You just need enough time and effort to create that little moment where your kid nudges your arm and invites you into something that is not a screen.
Lately, I have been thinking about how this little Boredom Box has quietly outlasted my own consistency. It kept nudging my daughter toward connection, even when I was not very actively nudging this project forward. That has reinvigorated my commitment to The Screen-Free Dad. If something this small can keep making a difference in our house, then it is worth showing up here again and building this with you.
So here is what you can expect moving forward. Just like the Boredom Box, it will not always be a big, polished thing. Some weeks, I will send you a full-blown article or a deeper reflection. Other weeks, it might just be a short story, a quick idea, or a simple prompt you can try with your kids that night. But the commitment will be there. I am in this with you, and I am looking forward to seeing what we can build together, one small screen-free moment at a time.
I believe in this project, and I hope you do too.
Scott
The Screen-Free Dad
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