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Happy New Year everyone! What a great holiday break, spending time with family and friends. It was great reconnecting and finding out what was happening in everyone’s lives. I hope you had a great break with family and friends as well.
Which sort of brings me to today’s blog. Connecting with our families. Families are priceless. A price can’t be put on how much our families are worth to us. But these days, I don’t always see that played out in our everyday lives. This thing called the cell phone is coming between people and not in a good way. Oh you might say it’s great because now I can talk to all of my family at any time of the day but to what end? Have you ever noticed someone talking on the phone to someone and ignoring the person right in front of them. Well, I have. And I see it a lot at the Preschool. Children who are at the Preschool are here because their parents need, choose, want, to work. Or because parents want their children to have opportunities to connect with other children their age. There are many reasons. But the one thing in common to all of these parents is that their children can’t wait for them to pick them up and tell them or show them what they’ve done that day. Yet, I see parents walk in the school on their cell phone and walk out of the school still on their cell phone. Barely acknowledging their children. This sends a message, LOUD and CLEAR, to the child. “YOU ARE NOT AS IMPORTANT AS THIS PERSON I AM TALKING TO”. You’re thinking, No that’s not true, they don’t think that. But it is true. Children need to feel loved. They need to be told they are cared about and they need to be SHOWN that you care for them. If you’re with someone at dinner and they get a call on their phone and they sit and talk to that person for 5 or 10 minutes. How does that make you feel? Or have you every gone to a counter at the store where the sales person is on her phone? Don’t you just want to grab it away and say “I’m the customer, I’m the important one right now”? Of course there are exceptions to the rule. But I don’t see the exception happening. I see people doing it as an everyday occurrence. Let me just say this right now in as recpectful a way as I can, GET OFF THE PHONE! It’s rude. It’s rude to the teacher. It’s rude to the other parents and it’s rude to your own child. Put the phone away. Let your child know they are the most important one right at that moment. Let them tell you about their day, or their art project or about their new friend. Show them how much you love them. Please, please, please don’t let the cell phone determine for you how you are going to act to you beloved family or your wonderful friends. The Preschool staff is important too. Choose to rule your cell phone and don’t let it rule you.
Thanks for listening!!
Barbara
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