Parents Plugged In, Kids Lose Out?
I saw something today that made me sad. I had to take my vacuum cleaner to be repaired and afterwards, I took the kids to the Mall so they could play at the indoor play area.
I'm enjoying watching the kids make friends and climb on the play structures, then I notice a baby to my right on the floor at his Dad's feet. He looks to be about 8 months old and in his infantile way was doing his best to get Dad's attention... only Dad was busy staring at a little screen in his hands. I don't know if he was texting or emailing or watching Porn for goodness sakes, but something about it made me uncomfortable.
For one, how often do you see Dads taking the kids to the Mall to play? There was no Mom around and he only had two kids with him. Would it have killed him to give the baby a little attention? The little guy couldn't even crawl but he was scooting towards his Dad's feet and looking up at him with these huge round eyes. It pulled at my heart. The Dad couldn't be bothered to look at his baby.
Finally the little guy starts crying. Now, I'm no shrinking violet, but I don't do crying babies. I didn't let my babies cry it out and I can't stand to hear other babies crying all alone either. His little whimpers were about to make my milk ejection reflex kick in and I didn't want a huge wet spot on my shirt. LOL! I couldn't stand it anymore so I walked over and got eye to eye with the baby and started talking to him. I noticed the other Moms around were kind of uncomfortable too because the Dad just kept ignoring him.
I grabbed my youngest and encouraged her to talk to the baby. She got down on her belly and talked to him which seemed to help, he did stop crying. FINALLY the Dad puts down the silly gadget and started paying attention to the baby at his feet, and the little guy was obviously eating it up! He giggled and laughed... until the Dad really put him down in another spot of the play area and picked up the gadget again.
The baby starts to cry again. Sigh.
Isn't it bad enough that we have screens in every room in the house that keep each member of the family cordoned off in their respective rooms? Now we have parents who can't be bothered to look and talk to their babies?
It just makes me sad. I wanted to put that little baby in my sling and take him home. It doesn't have to be abuse to be bad parenting.
I'm enjoying watching the kids make friends and climb on the play structures, then I notice a baby to my right on the floor at his Dad's feet. He looks to be about 8 months old and in his infantile way was doing his best to get Dad's attention... only Dad was busy staring at a little screen in his hands. I don't know if he was texting or emailing or watching Porn for goodness sakes, but something about it made me uncomfortable.
For one, how often do you see Dads taking the kids to the Mall to play? There was no Mom around and he only had two kids with him. Would it have killed him to give the baby a little attention? The little guy couldn't even crawl but he was scooting towards his Dad's feet and looking up at him with these huge round eyes. It pulled at my heart. The Dad couldn't be bothered to look at his baby.
Finally the little guy starts crying. Now, I'm no shrinking violet, but I don't do crying babies. I didn't let my babies cry it out and I can't stand to hear other babies crying all alone either. His little whimpers were about to make my milk ejection reflex kick in and I didn't want a huge wet spot on my shirt. LOL! I couldn't stand it anymore so I walked over and got eye to eye with the baby and started talking to him. I noticed the other Moms around were kind of uncomfortable too because the Dad just kept ignoring him.
I grabbed my youngest and encouraged her to talk to the baby. She got down on her belly and talked to him which seemed to help, he did stop crying. FINALLY the Dad puts down the silly gadget and started paying attention to the baby at his feet, and the little guy was obviously eating it up! He giggled and laughed... until the Dad really put him down in another spot of the play area and picked up the gadget again.
The baby starts to cry again. Sigh.
Isn't it bad enough that we have screens in every room in the house that keep each member of the family cordoned off in their respective rooms? Now we have parents who can't be bothered to look and talk to their babies?
It just makes me sad. I wanted to put that little baby in my sling and take him home. It doesn't have to be abuse to be bad parenting.
Labels: parents behaving badly
posted by Carrie Lauth at 10:39 AM
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1 Comments:
It's seen a lot. Parents have so much going on that they are trying to take care of "business" in any small moment of time they have. Not realizing that their kids are practically begging to be seen and heard. We are guilty of this too at times, but definitely trying to get better. So easy to do when there is a show on TV you want to watch after a long day. You rather just sit and veg, but your kids are all around you just waiting for a spot of attention to ask you a question or tell you something cool that happened that day. Now that I'm home more now and don't work outside the home, it's much easier for me to be more "in tune" with the kids and see their needs vs just trying to deal with them between work and laundry and cooking and cleaning, etc, etc, etc.
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