I got rid of our Google Home. My family life improved in unexpected ways.

I threw out the Google Home device we kept in the kitchen on a whim. It was simply an off day. I was trying to get dinner going, and I kept asking Google to turn the volume down. But when it was unresponsive too many times, it went straight to the trash.

It wasn’t something I had been thinking about doing, but when I did, it felt immediately freeing.

But then I did regret it a little. I began to think of all the ways Google had improved our lives. I liked saying, “Good morning,…