Remember life before FACEBOOK? iPhones? SmartTVs? Internet? Time to de-stress from e-stress...

Remember the days before Facebook, internet and mobile phones? When being away from your homephone meant you couldn't be reached and people were paid to sit at desks and take paper messages for other people who were busy in meetings and uncontactable?

Plenty of good has come with the advent of technology but I can't help wonder whether being more AVAILABLE has enhanced our lives, especially as mothers.

Have we simply become like walking 7/11 stores, always open for business? How many times have heard someone say: 'but didn't you get my email/ text/ IM/ Facebook message?'

Once upon a time, at 5pm Fridays, pubs were full of people celebrating the end of another week and the expectation they'd be free of work until 9am Monday. But both my husband and I have recently received Sunday morning emails with the expectation of a response that same day.  How rude! The trick is, of course, not to respond until 9am Monday or better still, don't check your emails until 8.59am.

I was recently gifted an iPhone, for which I'm completely grateful. But I have come to learn the hard way that in order to have some true peace and quiet during evenings and weekends, the iPhone (with its beeping email inbox and whirring text) has to be turned off (or atleast silenced).

I've seen many a parent at the park, pool or beach head down, texting, occasionally glancing up for a child safety check. I do it myself. I'm guilty. This is not a criticism, more an observation. The question begs: what were we all doing before texting and Facebook? Having more conversations with our partner or friends? playing with the kids? Reading a magazine or newspaper? Sleeping?

I was not surprised to hear a Tresillian staffer of 30 years express that one of the deepest concerns they had for mothers and children was the amount of time parents are spending online. It seems our online-lives are eating up our off-line real ones.

And this texting and Facebook thing is kind of addictive. If you're not careful you can find yourself with an uneasy feeling in your gutt, wondering what you were meant to do that you've forgotten, only to remember you haven't been in Facebook for 24 hours and need to check in to get your fix.

I recently decided to detox my inbox and get rid of all those email newsletters I never have time to read or file away for 'later'. I also committed to Facebook Fridays, to keep myself off it the other six days a week. Didn't last long...

My family got together recently for my mother's birthday and - for the first time in a long time - we had a e-free event. No one was texting or beeping or downloading. It wasn't until the next day that I realised we'd coped without our digital fixes.

I know...all things in moderation. But like most things in the home, I've been given the job of internet, TV and iPod moderator...known as the fun police! Weekdays aren't as much of a problem - the lines are clear and the kids too busy to tune in. But weekends are harder to patrol and I'm constantly turning off the digital entertainment and beckoning my family to play and interact the old fasioned way!

Great 'Digital Detox' article at Wellbeing online...