I really love this. I went on a holiday last year with three other families and we were out of phone reception. No biggie, we all had a great time. Then about 6 days in, we came back into phone reception, and I witnessed a mass disconnection of parents from their kids. It was really shocking to watch, and I felt really guilty, because I knew I was guilty of doing the same. So I made a conscious effort to unplug. It is so important to be conscious of it.
You see it everywhere don't you! I hope the other parents there saw it also and realised what they were missing out on.


DD1 played a game once, and as she explained how i was ment to play along my heart sank and i swore i would change how she saw me....''Mummy, you be the child and il be the mummy, and il be on the computer sending messages, and you say you want to play and i say IM TOO BUSY, so you go and sit in the corner and cry''
Oh gosh, that's heart breaking. What a wake up call. But a blessing really.

oh yeah. i catch myself doing this sometimes. part of the reason I do not own a smart phone.
I don't own a smart phone either. I don't want one. I would get addicted. It's just too easy to 'just check for any messages' and then get sidetracked and end up telling your kids just to wait because your 'busy'. When honestly, what is really important? We're just so used to knowing everything instantly now, having all the information we want straight away. Being able to send someone a message and get a reply straight back. And you get so used to doing that that you end up feeling like you just HAVE to respond straight away. You HAVE to know the moment you get a message. When really, who cares? No one probably cares if I write back straight away, if I have my say in a thread on BB right that minute. No one's really going to miss my input anyway, LOL. What is important is what is happening in my life right now. Time is going so so fast and I don't want to miss a minute.

I really can see how the computer, FB, BB, phones can be so addictive and sometimes you don't even notice what you're doing. I noticed a couple of months ago and since then had to make up some rules for myself because I don't want to be on the computer at all when my kids are awake. So, most of the time I'm not anymore. I don't have an iphone but DH has an ipod touch you can go on FB etc with. But I worked out how to turn off the WiFi so I can't do that. I turn it on for 1/2hr at night when I go to bed to feed DD2 to sleep and use it then so I don't fall asleep and that's it. I turn the computer on during their nap time and turn it off again when they wake up. They sleep for 2 hrs, that is more than enough time for me, surely!! Yep, sometimes I fail, but this article was a great reminder. She has lots of other great posts on her blog too.

Anyways, that was a bit of a ramble, lol. Glad you liked the article too