shut your phone off, you won't die
Perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give our kids is attending to them. Really listening. As an adult, you know how you feel if you are talking to somebody and they are looking at their phone (or newspaper or television or their book for that matter….but our phones are pervasive).
We want our children to attend. We want them to listen to us, respect us, hear us, respond to us. But it’s not possible to teach our children to attend if we don’t attend to them. It was something I noticed early on in my homeschool journey and sought to put away that which drew my attention away from reading to my kids or working with them. Phones came later, but their presence in our lives is both efficient and insidious.
We have to know when it’s time to shut off notifications, or put the phone up on the high shelf, while I work with you, or eat a meal with you, or just spend time with you.
Attend to one another.
Our phones aren’t the only thing seeking to draw our attention away from our relationships. The laundry, the cooking, the dishes, the endless picking up of stuff. But here’s how it works, really. The more we attend, the more tanks are filled and the more it’s possible to get the work done. When it’s time to be with other, be fully with them. When it’s time to read to our children, be fully engaged. When it’s time to have a meal…be there. Don’t be thinking about all the things.
Be there. The more we are there, attending, the happier our people will be; and when it’s time to do the work, just attend to that. Get it done. Set a timer.
Our phones can distract us from getting the things done, too. Create “phone time.” Time when you can just sit down and check the email and social media. It’s not going anywhere.
