Am I tuning my kids out because I'm too plugged in?
Submitted by emacphe
It's bad. I hear that little "tweet-tweet" go off and I drop everything to see what's up. I text at the gym. I email while I scramble eggs for my kids' breakfasts. I'm on the darn thing all the time. Last week, we went on vacation and my husband threatened to throw my BlackBerry in the ocean after I called the office from my beach blanket to check in.
In my defense, I'm a work-from-home mom—so my kids are with me when I work, and my work comes with me on park outings and to play groups. It's often hard for me to separate work and family obligations when both are pressing and need my attention. Plus, confession #2 here: I'm a workaholic—(and a perfectionist); so putting aside a work question to deal with spilled apple juice is, well, hard.
Still, I don't want to be that mom—the one who can't hang up the phone and be a parent. I want to be the mom that's out there playing tag at the park, the mom that dresses up and puts on plays with her kids, the mom that bakes homemade snacks after school. I want to be that mom that always gives her kids her full attention when she's with them. But honestly, I'm just not.
I really want to get better though (that's got to count for something, right?) and after I read Maggie Jackson's book Distracted, I'm making it a point to be more unplugged. The book talks about how devices like BlackBerries and cell phones distract us from the things that really matter. And it's so true. But it's so HARD! My kids were making this big Lego tower the other day. Was I right there on the floor building it up with them? Nope! I was pecking away on my little keypad. BlackBerry is a helluva drug.
Are there any other recovering BlackBerry addicts out there? I feel like I need some sort of 12-step support group.
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