Being a parent in the era of Internet!
When I was a little girl, we did not have phones and electronics. We watched an evening show and sometimes some kids programs in the morning, usually on the weekends. We were happy and free! Our imagination was our strength and no one was bored or at least no one complained to be bored. We played sports, made “Tag balls” out of paper bags filled with grass and hay, we played jumping rope, and spent hours outside running around with our friends. We didn’t need cell phones or WIFi. We didn’t even know that we needed it. Life was simple, easy, and fun.
And now…we are adults who often cannot live without our phones. Phones became not only a part of who we are, but also a part of our family life. We eat dinner with phones next to us, we check the weather, news, Insta posts, check people’s Fb pictures. Phones became members of our families.
Have you ever wondered how our children feel when we spend those endless minutes, hours, days on our phones? How many times have you seen a little kid asking his parent to play on a playground when mom or dad was scrolling through the phone not even paying attention to what her/his child was doing? How many times you said: “Wait, let me just check something” or “Hold on, I need to finish texting” ….How would you feel if your friend would talk to you while holding the phone in his/her hand and tell you to wait or hold on or while eating lunch with your significant other you would stare at your phone’s screen rather than enjoying the time together?
Here is the truth: our children were born surrounded by electronics and phones. Their first encounter with this world was mommy or daddy’s phone taking pictures of his/her precious little face! WiFI and network is everyone and it is really easy to log ourselves out from everyday life. We need to pay more attention to the fact that 10 minutes on social media for us is like a split second but for our children it is a sad and lonely eternity! Our children need us to be present and to be there for them! They need our eye – contact and closeness that we cannot give them when our mind is in a social media’s cloud.
I feel that we all need to learn how to mindfully use our smartphones and not forget what is really important in life! So, let’s try to put the phone aside and become a more present and fun parent!