Parents engage with your child!

The other day I had a meeting at my second office also known as Vide e Cafe at Belevedere Square with a supplier. While we were having said meeting both of us became distracted at the lack of engagement between parents and child.

Now being a working parent myself I understand the concept of being on call 24/7 and I appreciate that work doesn't really care for half terms and school holidays but please if you are going to spend time with your children then at least engage with them. I'll explain why.

Case one - +/-4 year old child sat eating a cupcake while fixated with a kids tablet while her parent was immersed in her iPad and had zero engagement with the child

Case two - parent spend the whole thirty minutes on their phone walking around the cafe while the child desperately tried to get their attention by following them. The poor kid was told on more than a few occasions to "sit down and behave" ummmmmm right

Case three - baby cried in her pram for ten minutes non stop while her parent ignored her and was totally engaged with Facebook on her phone

Now for sure I don't know the full reasons for such lack of interactions but it still shocked me. What are we teaching children? what are the examples we are setting? Surely this time together would have benefited both parties through interaction with each other, creating and maintaining a bond and sharing some quality time?

My worry is that we have become so obsessed with our devices that we are forgetting about the little people right in front of us that in my humble opinion are so much more fun to play with.

So now Kim and I have set a new house rule while Mitch is still young. If you are with him the devices are off and on silent in the case of the phone. We had him for a reason and the best gift we can give is to make sure he knows he is loved and that we want to spend time with him. Devices can wait, our sons life cannot

Rant over!