Okay, so I am the first person to admit I love my phone. I love checking Facebook and Twitter a few times a day as well as my email. I love to text and google random stuff that comes to my head. Do I do it in front of my kids? Yes, although I try to keep it to a minimum. But, do I do it during story time with my kids or while I’m supposed to be watching them do an activity? No.
As a I grab my step stool to get up on my soap box for a few minutes I would like to thank the parents who inspired this blog post. Thank you to the moms who text and do whatever else on their phones at the library instead of watching their kids during story time. A big shout out to the moms who are sharing photos with each other during story time at Barnes & Noble. Sometimes they get so chatty I can’t even pay attention to the story. I can just imagine how the kids do it. I don’t want to forget the parents at the beach who are too busy talking on their phones to realize their kids are going a little too close to the water’s edge.
Okay, so now that I’m comfy on my soap box I can tell you why all this stuff bothers me. I know I shouldn’t care, but I feel bad for the kids who are being ignored at the hands of technology. When I was growing up (oh God, I sound like my mom!) I didn’t have to compete with a phone for my parents’ attention. I feel like our kids have to do that sometimes. That makes me sad. Kids get excited over the littlest things. Every letter they learn and every leaf they pick up off the ground is a BIG deal. It’s too bad so many parents are so buried in their phones to even notice.
Don’t get me wrong, there are times when I catch myself doing the same thing. Then I tell myself to put the phone away and just focus on my kids and the “now”. The “later” will be for the phone and all that other junk that takes up too much time already.
Okay, so I think you all get my point here. I wish they had an app to teach some parents how to pay closer attention to their kids! For the time being, let’s just put down the phone peeps…at least for our kids’!