UnPlugNPlay – Our New Adventure at Home

The Well Connected Mom is known as a resource for families in finding and explaining how different gadgets and technologies work for families.  We spend hours working with tech to highlight the relevance of how it makes sense to your everyday life.

Every once in a while, we have a company approach us with the idea to unplug.  Asking a techie to unplug is like asking Smokey the Bear to begin smoking, it just doesn’t make sense.  🙂  OK, I’m exaggerating a bit.  I mean, I can give up gadgets, I do it all the time…like when I’m in the shower…or eating dinner with the family.

But when Killerspin, the leader in luxury table tennis experiences, approached us with the idea of participating in UnPlugNPlay – having our family put down the devices and pick up ping pong paddles instead, I was intrigued.  Ping pong, I love ping pong.  I remember playing ping pong a lot as a child.  Our family had a table and we spent hours playing.  I have to admit, I’m a pretty decent player.

As much as I am an advocate for technology, family fun takes precedence for me.  So I took Killerspin up on their offer.  Our goal?  To UnPlugNPlay.  Yup, put down the tablets, phones, turn off the TV and Xbox (but keep the pedometer on!), and play ping pong.  What?  OK, the pedometer is tech, but I can’t wait to increase my daily steps just by playing ping pong!

Why UnPlugNPlay?

My daughter started junior high this year.  Everyone in junior high is focused on their phones.  One day during pick up, one girl was getting into her carpool car when she dropped her phone as she was entering the car.  Unfortunately, instead of the usual gutter, there was a large sewer grate and yes, you guessed it, her brand new iPhone 6 dropped through the grate and to the bottom.  This poor girl was fraught with worry.  She was visibly shaken and quite frankly, freaked out.  The thought of telling her parents she lost her phone like this was unbearable.

I couldn’t help but think about the focus kids…and parents… put on their devices that seem attached to their hands.  Phones are amazing tools, I don’t know what I’d do without mine, but they don’t bring us closer to our kids, memories do.  Our kids won’t look back on their childhood and talk about the cool iPhone 6 we got them, they’ll talk about our Family Fun nights, our vacations, and the traditions we carried year after year.  

As kids get older, they spend more time on their devices.  To them, their phone is their “lifeline.”  But as adults, we know this simply isn’t true.  Life is meant to be lived, not texted or emoj’d. Providing your family the ability to #UnPlugNPlay with a ping pong table allows for more spontaneous engagement and conversation.

I’ll tell you about the arrival of our Killerspin ping pong table in a minute, but in the short time we’ve had so far playing ping pong, all it takes is for a ping pong to be hit across the table a couple of times and our kids come running in to play.  I can’t even get them to come for dinner as quickly as they come to play ping pong.  It is truly fascinating.

Whereas before, we’d all be doing our daily routines…homework, cooking dinner, checking email, reading, etc., playing ping pong has unified us, bringing us together for a pick-up game and a little friendly competition.  Family fun is now impromptu, not a planned night.  It’s happening daily naturally, unscheduled, unannounced, and unequivocally!

We are bonding daily, strengthening family closeness and extending memories with our play time together.  Running off to volleyball practice?  A quick game gets my daughter energized.  Bored with homework?  Finish 4 more problems and we’ll play a quick game.  Son doesn’t want to go to bed?  Play a quick game and if he wins he can stay up 10 minutes longer (just make sure you’re better than he is!).

Arrival Day

We didn’t tell our kids that we were getting a ping pong table.  We just simply told them that we were expecting a big delivery.  Immediately my son began asking questions like, is it bigger than a computer?  Bigger than our car?  Would it fit in our long closet?  My daughter asked questions like, is it a TV?  Is it a trampoline?  Neither line of questioning led them to the right answer, but it was fun as they were anticipating our big surprise.

On arrival day, a big truck delivered the ping pong table in a large flat box.  We had them place it in our family room, so we could easily play ping pong anytime we wished.  Our kids were super exited.  Skipping his after school snack, my son jumped right into opening up the box.

Included in the box was one page of simple instructions.  My son and I worked together to take everything out of the box and assemble it.  I have always enjoyed assembling things and building the ping pong table together with my son was a bonding experience.  We were excited to put it together so we could play, but I also realized that my son, like me, enjoys the assembly process.  The table was very easy to put together, taking us only 40 minutes and Killerspin provided all the tools and materials we needed.

Our Play

                          Our kids are finding different ways to play with the table!

For the next six months or so, we will be playing ping pong and I will give you updates on how we are taking the opportunity to UnPlugNPlay on an ongoing basis.  Sure, any new toy gets a lot of attention at first, but as life gets busy, will we play less ping pong?  

Will we turn back into couch potatoes and go back to watching TV shows and movies together, rather than hop up and play some ping pong?  Only time will tell, but I honestly don’t think so.  Ping pong is one of those games that everyone just LOVES to play.  And kids of all ages and at any skill level can play.  I have no doubt that anytime any of our friends come over and see the table, it’s going to be used!  How can you resist ping pong?

In the meanwhile, while we work on our #Killerspin, we’ll post pictures on our social channels to show you how we’re doing.  Do you have memories of playing ping pong as a kids?  Share them with us in comments below.