Where's the phone?
Beautiful Swedish mom sitting on park bench with son.
What do you notice?
A moment. A shared moment between parent and child. Count up the electronic devices you see.
Not getting on a giant rant. I dig tech too. I shot this pic on my phone.
But we don’t need technology and we don’t need phones and screens and flashy battery-powered stuff to hold our kids’ attention constantly.
I’m not against those things sometimes, just like I’m not against chocolate cake, or even chocolate cake for breakfast sometimes, especially if there’s also peanut butter involved.
But I’m not a huge proponent of feeding our kids chocolate cake every single morning and having them get used to it, because it’s a little tougher going back to oatmeal after that.
I don’t like making technology a forbidden fruit; an object of desire that’s hung out of reach and therefore instantly desirable. I don’t want to hide those things. They’ll be part of their lives and we can help model for them how to either use it in a responsible and healthy way…
…or to depend on it like a third arm.
Like my good bud Rach, I think we can show our kids how to live well without them whenever possible. How to seize a moment; a shared moment and give it all the attention we can give. And it feels good to laugh and smile and talk together.
There’s no app for that.