Cell Phone Addictions

It seems to me that this week there are a lot of children (and by “children” I mean kids under the age of 7 or 8) in the news. This week we have one story where a parent goes into the store to pick up items and leaves their kid in the car unattended while some teenagers decide to attempt grand theft auto; only getting away with only the parents purse once they saw a kid in the child’s seat. I oddly wonder why was the parent’s purse was left in the car if they were getting “items”? Or to the kindergarten child who took his family's gun to school and the gun fell out of their pocket, which of course discharged. Where was this kids parent’s when they sent their kid to school with a gun in their pocket? I’m not saying anything about gun owners, but it makes every responsible gun owner out there look like a moron who can’t handle owning a gun if you have a child in the household.

This brings me to my topic today; parents and cell phones.

As a kid do you ever remember having lunch with your parents? It was even more enjoyable if you had siblings and your parent took you alone to lunch. That lunch was considered quality time with your parents, something that I remember doing with my own, it was something special and a lifelong memory. Today I saw a toddler eating lunch with their mother. The kid was very well behaved and eating their lunch, trying very desperately to talk and get their mothers attention. No the child wasn’t screaming or crying to get their mothers attention, but just talking and saying mom and then talking again, eventually giving up and looking down at their plate of food. Their mother, who was busy texting and updating/checking their facebook status’s of the day. I admit there was a strong urge to say something and toss their phone across the room... but I resisted.

But this cell phone addiction is just that, an addiction. Where do parents or even any of us, break away from our updating of the status’s and set the technology aside? In this case, a 3 year old is the one who is suffering because a phone is more important than them. And parents just because you think your child is a genius because they can unlock your phones unlock pattern rather than being able to communicate, trust me your child is not a genius; they are just mimicking what you do with your phone. Or if you think your child being able to scroll threw a cell phones pictures or navigate to different applications, yeah sorry not a genius, just think of how many times your child has seen you do this. So maybe set your phone down and spend some time with your child rather than telling us all that you are at lunch with them!