Rachel, the blogger, had received a heart-breaking email from a childcare worker talking about how much parents use their Smart Phones and the impact it has on their kids.
Frankly it was a pretty devastating story and made me SO glad that my Samsung Galaxy is complete crap and I have never been able to get it to access:
- the internet
- my emails
(and no, I wouldn't recommend the phone!)
Among other things the post really raised the question 'why can't everyone put their phones down for a while and focus on their kids?'
I am far from perfect at this parenting caper and am definitely guilty of sneaking off to my computer while my kids are playing (or eating dinner!). But I'm not guilty of over-enthusiastic Smart Phone offences and thank goodness because otherwise the comments from some of the kids in Rachel's post would probably have made me cry.
Parenting can be amazingly boring, frustrating and lonely, everyone who does it is incredible and some days having contact with a person who can wipe their own bottom is the only thing that keeps you sane. I'm sure it was always thus and that the parent's who have gone before us just had to go a bit further to get that contact, like down to the village well.
And I don't dispute that Smart Phones are an amazing invention - who would have thought that you could access every single piece of information in the world from something you carry in your pocket) but I honestly wish they didn't exist because you can use them EVERYWHERE and it is very hard to resist just 'a quick check'.
No one would ever set up a computer next to their bed so they can check their emails one last time, or update their Facebook status before they go to sleep, but they have no hesitation logging in with their phone and don't even see it as being rude to their partner.
And when did it become more important to post about your amazing dinner with friends, instead of enjoying your amazing dinner with friends?
Do we really need to share everything, all the time?
Are we just showing off? Or maybe we are all so insecure that we actually do enjoy our dinner more if all our friends (and people we used to work with 10 years ago) complement us on our menu choices. Surely not?
It truly drives me crazy when the people I am with can't leave their phone alone but I hadn't really thought how much more devastating it would be if I were a child and the person obsessed with their phone was my parent until this morning.
And it seems that it is pretty devastating indeed!
Are you a Smart Phone addict?
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