hang up and play

This is a small rant, just to warn you.

While we were in Kansas City on spring break, we visited a local park with a small playground. It was a beautiful day, the sun was bright and warm, and there were a few other kids enjoying the time outside as well. Specifically, there were two other boys there with their dads.

Pretty cool when dad's take their kids to the park, yes? I love that!

But what I noticed was not so impressive. Both dads were on their smart phones surfing the web or texting or whatever, THE ENTIRE TIME. I'm not exaggerating in the least...I mean, the ENTIRE time their kids played. Fortunately for the two boys, they found each other and began playing dinosaurs. At one point, boy #2 wanted to swing and called out for his dad to come push him. The dad's eyes didn't budge from his phone as he answered, "No son. You know how to do that by yourself. You go on ahead." He totally blew him off. A while later, the dad decided it was time to leave and called his son to go to the car. The son protested and said he wanted to stay at which point the dad got really irritated and told him to stop whining.

Now I hesitate to judge other people's parenting as there are many times I feel as if I have failed at the end of the day. But this is an issue that really, really bothers me. Sometimes I just HATE the hold that technology has over our lives. What a missed opportunity that dad had to connect with his son. He probably thought he was doing the little guy a big favor by letting him go to the park. But what I saw was total rejection.

I've mentioned how I'm trying to be better about not spending so much time on the computer, especially when the kids are up and around. There are already so many demands for our time as parents...can't we try a little harder to stop willingly giving our precious time and attention to our gadgets and gizmos? (I know it's hard to take me seriously when I use the word "gizmo.")

In all seriousness though, I challenge you to power down whenever possible. And I'll keep trying to do the same. Hopefully, we'll all end up actually talking to each other or enjoying some other ancient passtime.