Festivals and Screens — Finding the Balance

-


 Diwali diyas are being lit, and my son is more interested in recording it on a phone than actually watching the flame flicker. It's a small moment, but it stayed with me.

Festivals in India have always been deeply sensory — the smell of incense, the sound of crackers, the taste of sweets made at home. But increasingly, festivals are also experienced through a screen — recording rangoli for Instagram, video-calling relatives during Eid, watching Holi celebrations online before stepping outside to play.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Technology has made it possible for families separated by distance to feel included in festival moments they'd otherwise miss entirely.

But it's worth occasionally asking — is my child experiencing this festival, or just watching it get recorded? A few small shifts can help:

  • One "no phone" festival activity each year — making rangoli, helping with diyas, or decorating together
  • Letting kids record some moments, but not all of them
  • Telling the stories behind festivals out loud, the way they were told to us — no app needed for that

Festivals were never meant to be passive. A little intentionality can keep them feeling the way they always have — alive, present, and shared.


Looking for screen-free activities for your child? Check out my printable coloring books and party printables at Kids Take It All! — https://payhip.com/TinyToes 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing Kids Take It All! — My Little Digital Store for Big Little Moments

-
Image
https://payhip.com/products If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know that I write a lot about balancing screens and real-world activities for our little ones. Today I wanted to share something a little more personal — a small project I've been quietly building on the side, born entirely out of my love for children and creative play. Say hello to Kids Take It All! 🎉 It's my little digital store on Payhip.com, where I create and sell printable activity products for young children — things parents can instantly download, print at home, and hand straight to their kids. No waiting for delivery, no expensive toy stores, no screens required once it's printed! Here's what's available in the store right now: 🐘 My First Animal Friends — Printable Coloring Book for Toddlers (Ages 2–4) This was the very first product I created, and honestly it still makes me smile every time I look at it. Ten pages of cute animal illustrations — elephant, bunn...
Read more

Why I Created India's First Bilingual Digital Baby Memory Book

-
Image
  There is a box in many Indian homes. You probably know the one. It sits on a high shelf or deep inside a cupboard, and inside it are things that were never meant to last — a hospital bracelet so small it barely fits around a finger, a pressed flower from a naamkaran ceremony, a blurry photograph printed at a chemist shop in 2019, a folded piece of paper with a baby's first footprint in ink. This box is our version of a baby memory book. And for most Indian families, it is the only one that exists. I know this because I am a parent. And like most parents, I always meant to write things down properly. I meant to record the exact time my child first smiled, the word they said first, the look on my mother's face when she held her grandchild for the first time. I meant to capture all of it. And then life happened. And the months went by. And the memories I was so certain I would never forget began to blur at the edges. The Problem with Every Baby Journal I Found When I finally dec...
Read more