Mom! Get off the phone! Credit: BuzzFarmers
By Amy L. Hatch
You know you’ve done it.
You’ve checked your smart phone at the park/playground/playdate/children’s museum … etc., etc. I know I have. As a digital worker I am tethered to my iDevice in a way I couldn’t have imagined when my mobile phone was the size of my palm and wasn’t enabled to send or receive text messages.
Apparently, I’m not alone and apparently, I’m a very bad, terrible, no-good parent. Or that’s how a new blog wants me to feel, and I’ll tell you what — I kind of do feel that way after seeing photo after photo of parents ignoring their kids on Parents On Phones.
These moms and dads are engrossed in whatever is going on inside that little hand-held super-computing device (which, by the way, is more powerful than the computer that flew the lunar module, chew on that for a few minutes).
I’ve been pretty open about the fact that I don’t enjoy playing as much as some parents might and that I find it hard to unplug. Here’s a fun fact: I’m writing this on the first day of our family vacation. Go ahead and judge away — I do plenty of self-judging. Especially when my kid says things like, “Mommy, shut your computer now, no working!”
And I’ll be honest — I’ve certainly spent a half-hour at the park thumbing through blogs or email while my kids play. Part of me feels like I earned that 30 minutes, because I already spent countless hours spotting toddlers at the playground so they didn’t split their heads open on the slide.
But then today I found myself frustrated because I couldn’t get a signal on the beach. On the beach. My kids were playing together in the sand and I wanted to … I don’t know. Connect. And so I sat there shaking my iPhone like a Magic Eight ball waiting for those three bars to show up so I could share how much fun I was having by spending 15 minutes posting photos of the beach (that I drove 1,300 miles to get to, no less) on Facebook.
Duh.
Lucky for me, I couldn’t connect. So I went swimming instead.
‘Fess up, do you spend time on your phone when you’re with your kids?
I can relate a lot to this article… while out at the weekend with the kids, my mobile went flat (because I forgot to charge it the night before). As I put it in my pocket and said “well that’s the end of that!”, our eldest daughter clasped her head in her hands and dramatically shouted “OH NO! NO PHONE! THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!” lol
LOL. Lucky you, indeed. That said, how *nice* to know of yet another parent shaming blog. How many of these things can the Internet support? On second thought, withdraw the question. I don’t really want to know.
One of my youngest child’s first words was again. He sees my phone and tells me again so he can watch cartoons on youtube.
My oldest is only two but he knows how to turn off my phone and yell “Mommy- put it in your pocket!” I feel ashamed and proud all at the same time- although he does love angry birds.
I admit my husband and I are on our phones and ipad way too much but we have fun with them too. Just this morning my two year old and I had a “dance party” in the living room using the angry birds theme song on my phone.
It’s a balancing act.
I love this Tumblr. Love it!
I don’t have a problem with parents checking their phones/devices occasionally. Heck, we all do it. What I do have a problem with is people (not just parents) who are so attached to their electronic devices that they are completely disconnected from the people around them.
Example: on Saturday night, my husband and I had a night out at a nice local restaurant. A family of four was seated at the table next to ours. Everyone at the table–both parents and both children–spent their entire meal fiddling with their phones. They hardly interacted with each other.
I’ve seen this far too many times–couples out at restaurants who are more engrossed with their smartphone screen than they are with the person they’re dining with, or families where the children are playing their hand-held video game throughout the meal. If all you want to do is stare at your phone, why go out to eat? Why not just stay home and get take-out?
I think my daughter needs to learn technology skills–how to use a variety of electronic devices–but I also think she needs to learn technology manners. And I believe that she also needs to learn the importance of connecting with other people in real life–not just online. We already have a “no electronic devices at the table” rule, and I plan to continue that as my daughter discovers life beyond teething toys, rattles, and her much-beloved “links.” I really do worry that people are losing their ability to connect with others because they’re too plugged in.