In one of my all-time favorite photos, my girls, as toddlers, are seated at a play table overflowing with play food, eating a pretend dinner while focused on toy cell phones. It is at once the most scathing indictment of my parenting and an adorable scene. At the time, I was just grateful they’d played happily together for a while. Nearly a decade later, our dependence on cell phones is no longer charming. Like everyone, I’m addicted to my phone. But my husband and kids take it to the next level. We text from one room to the other, they look at their phones while watching TV, and so on. It makes me furious and ashamed, but I’m relatively resigned to it. Fighting it is a losing battle, partly because it’s a rare point on which my husband and I disagree. If I threw down an ultimatum—me or his phone—I’m pretty sure he’d go with the phone. But also because in the rare moments I insist we all unplug, they feel as though they’re being punished. Convention dictates that I now ask how you handle limits on cell phones. But I know what one should do, I just don’t have the discipline. Are there parenting shortcomings to which you’ve resigned yourself? Write to me at andrea@time.com. I’ll reply within minutes, since my phone is always in my hand. Best,
Andrea |
