Quality Time

I know that we all fall victim to it at one time or another. I know that you have done at least one of these very things. Do you talk on the phone while "playing" with your child? Do you watch TV while having a conversation with your spouse? Who has driven through the Drive Thru on their mobile phone?

This morning I took the kids to a local park to play. It was such a beautiful day!! We had so much fun!! Hannah made a fast food restaurant with wood chips and Carter tried to eat them. They sang the train song while driving a giant train around. We went down the slide, climbed like monkeys and went on the swings for 30 minutes. During all this fun we were having I noticed another mother with a daughter, who looked to be the same age as Hannah. The mother was on her mobile phone. I was NOT trying to monitor her conversation although it took more effort not to listen than listen intently. Needless to say it sounded like a bunch of unimportant gossip. So anyway we were at the park for an hour or so and this woman was on the phone the entire time. Her daughter really wanted to play, but was feeling a little frustrated that her mom wasn't listening to her at all.

Now I am NOT judging this woman at all!! I just think it is important to think about how our behavior. This woman may have been Mother of the Year and I caught her at a bad time or maybe she was having a really important conversation. Moreover, I began to think about how I act when I'm with my kids or even alone. As you know I got a new mobile phone last week and I love it. Before we were using a different provider that didn't really get service in our area and the phones we had were so horrible that the battery would die after 45 minutes of talking. Needless to say I didn't really use my phone much. If I had the phone with me it was usually dead anyway. Getting to the point I feel like in this world of growing technology it is getting harder and harder to have quality time. Playing with your kids and giving them your undivided attention is great!! You learn so much about them as little people and having a candle lit conversation with your spouse seems so much more intimate. Anyway I just think that mobile phones are intruding in our relationships. Sorry this is such an abrupt ending but I have to run and spend some quality time with my kidos before bed.