Could You Spend Summer (More) Smartphone Free? My older daughter had her school year's last "performance assembly" this morning, and while the children were lining up, I scanned down the row: parent after parent, including me and my husband, with smartphones in hand, skimming e-mails with our younger children milling about our chairs. Moments later, all phones shifted to camera mode, and all hands went up as the show began - synchronized parenting. I love my phone. It's a peril of the way I've structured my life that I will spend nearly every afternoon and early evening simultaneously engaged in parenthood and career. Most weekdays after 3 p.m., I'm fully on duty at home, which sometimes means vaguely supervising children throwing water balloons in the yard, sometimes hauling cleats, balls, gear and children across town and sometimes full attention on homework, a project or something we've planned together. But because many of the people I work with need me available until the end of the workday, I do nearly all of this with a phone (or a laptop or an iPad) in hand. I also invariably go back to work after bedtime. And yes, it bleeds into the weekend - wherever we are, those several hundred e-mails I didn't get to during the week are conveniently located right there in my pocket. I can knock out a few from the lacrosse field, while waiting for the barbecue dinner on Saturday night, as we walk through town on the way to a haircut or the library. So does Jessica McDaniel, a Boston-based photographer. But this past weekend, Ms. McDaniel proposed to her daughter that she might just ... stop. I suggested something timidly to Annie (my 6-and-a-half year old) the other day. I kind of knew that I was signing my name in blood to the plan when it popped out of my mouth, but I took the risk and went for it. "Do you think I should do something new this summer? Do you think I should make a promise not to use my phone when I'm hanging out with you and your sister? I almost wanted to grab the words and stuff them back inside my mouth as they hung there, heavy with promise. But her face LIT up. She smiled a huge smile, and said, without hesitation, "Yes!" Ms. McDaniel's blog is usually all business - photo shoot schedules, pictures from sessions - but she wanted to share this, in part to hold herself to it. From June 1 to Aug. 31, she pledged to turn off the e-mail on her phone and delete her Facebook and Twitter apps. I'm not going to even pretend I could do this on the weekdays. That phone makes those afternoons together possible - even if I'm not wholly "present" all the time - and my children understand that. Not getting out my laptop and taking advantage of the college's Wi-Fi during their twice-weekly soccer wouldn't mean I'd watch or help out. It would mean I'd hire someone else to drive them, or keep them home, and we'd lose the trips for pizza together afterward, or the time we take to eat a snack together before. But I do it too much. If we have to wait in line behind even one person at the bookstore, my hand creeps to my phone. A lull in the family conversation at the burrito joint? Phone. Long walk through the parking lot? You guessed it. That stuff I do not need to do. I'm not detaching from e-mail, or even deleting apps. But the promise not to use my phone while we're "hanging out?" That's a promise I'm ready to keep. I've already declared Saturdays a largely Internet-free zone (hey, sometimes you just need a corn bread recipe), and I can take that one further by dropping the phone in the glove box when I can, and walking away. And I can give my children permission to say, "Mommy, please put away your phone." Ms. McDaniel hasn't unplugged yet, but she's already made changes. I checked in with her - by e-mail - to see how she was feeling about her upcoming quiet period. I was at the pediatrician's office with my 3 year old the other day, and we were waiting in the (boring, toy-free) office for the doctor, and of course I reached for my phone. I checked email as Sadie opened and closed a cabinet, over and over. Then I put the phone in my purse. I crossed my legs and told Sadie to sit on my top, bounce-able foot, and she bounced there (I alternated legs - it killed) for a good few minutes. The giggle she got going was insanely awesome, though - and a few weeks ago I would have gotten just one more email returned in those three minutes. Not that she'll ever remember that little moment, but I will. I feel like this is as much about me enjoying them this summer as it is about them "getting" to have me focused on them. She's so right - my children will surely prefer me without my eyes constantly glued to that little screen, but I too will enjoy all those dinners and walks a whole lot more when eating, walking and being together are all that's on the agenda. I suspect it's going to be a little hard at first but I've still got children who'd like to hold my hands, and I'm going to try harder to keep them both free. Would you enjoy your summer more if you used your phone less?