Sipping coffee and reading the Sunday paper at the dining table. “It will take all day to get through this paper,” I say to Andy, my husband and he smiles. That is exactly the point.

This does not happen at our house, or at least it hasn’t happened in years. I asked Andy if we used to do this when we lived in Brooklyn in the early 2000’s. He thought yes, for a time. But the memory is vague. Today I decided we would do this again, for the first time. So I sent Andy to the corner store to get the Sunday editions of the New York Times and the Boston Globe. When he got back he asked if we could read the paper at the table – because we have a “no devices at the table” rule we could not previously read the news on our phones during breakfast – yes we can, was the answer.

As we sat, each with our own edition, sipping coffee and eating bagels, we smiled at each other in a silent acknowledgement that this was good. Very good. It’s an image I have seen on tv, in movies and in my own home as a kid of grown-ups reading the newspaper in the morning. It’s perhaps a bit nostalgic, and possibly even unsustainable, as our 15 year old daughter pointed out. Maybe it dates us or makes us old; our 11 year old son said we looked like Grammy now. But I am ok with all of that.

This week I have been reassessing my relationship with the news, media and my phone. I read a lot of headlines on social media and some in depth articles and opinion pieces on my New York Times digital subscription. I started reading some Substack newsletters, in particular the one from historian Heather Cox Richardson, sometimes on my computer, sometimes on my phone. It’s been a very news heavy couple of weeks so there has been a lot of phone time and I don’t like it for a few reasons. For one, I think it’s hard to read for long periods on my phone, so I tend to just skim. For another, my kids really don’t know if I am reading news, playing Candy Crush or scrolling social media. All they see is my phone in my hand and I don’t like what that models for them.

I was today years old when I learned that PBS NewsHour is broadcast free every weeknight at 6:00 pm. We don’t have cable and I had given up on the idea watching the nightly news. But NewsHour is apparently streamed on YouTube and I found it on my Roku under the PBS app, no log-in or donation required. I told Andy I would like to start watching this together after dinner. Our son wants to know what is going on as well so this lets him participate and maybe it would give us a chance to discuss what was going on as a family. When we each consume the news independently there is limited opportunity for discussion.

I was able to get through one article in the Sunday paper, with numerous interruptions from Daughter who was looking for her gym shorts and Son who was excited to be able to make a family group chat by way of his iPad (he doesn’t have a phone). And that is when I realized why we had never been able to do this before. There is no such thing as Slow Sundays with kids. Whether it is changing diapers or taking them to soccer games, there is always something. For several years we made a concerted effort to go to our UU church on Sundays to help teach the kids good values, but boy was that stressful! They fought us most Sundays and eventually we gave up, for now.

I have dreams of reading the Sunday paper and then taking a leisurely Sunday stroll but I’m not sure when that will happen. It it something people do in retirement? Or is it just in the movies? My impression is that people do that in Norway, in part because of tradition and in part because all the shops are closed, but is that only when we come to visit? What is your experience of Slow Sundays? Is that something you do or only dream about? If you are living this dream, what phase of life are you in?