By Samantha McConnell
Gone are the days that mothers have the option to stay home with their children while husbands work as sole provider of security and stability in the home. Families living this 1950’s scene are of the vast minority and it is one that generally comes with great sacrifices by the parents. In the past 120 years, women have made great strides toward achieving equality with our male counter-parts in all aspects of life; from gaining the right to vote to eligibility for comparable job opportunities as men and let us not forget the availability of birth control. But with all this advancing forward, could it be that we as modern women have allowed ourselves to lose sight of the importance of slowing down and enjoying our children before they are no longer tiny, helpless little babies?
I have seen it time and time again; Mom takes her children to the playground so they can work off some of that built up energy in hopes that they will fall asleep quickly and with little contest at the golden hour of bed time. But while the children are running around being young and carefree, Mom is glued to her cell phone. She misses her daughter running away from the boy with “cooties” or her son pretending to be Superman at the top of the slide.
Could the activity taking place within the confines of that tiny computer be extremely important? Maybe. Could she be finalizing a huge deal that promises her a huge bonus? Perhaps. Is she missing irreplaceable moments in her children’s life? Absolutely.
I don’t blame the mother. She is a victim of the technology-driven world that we live in. We as a society cannot function without electronics. We have every bit of information we could ever want at just a moment’s click away, and we have taken to abusing that privilege. I don’t pretend to be innocent of these actions. Countless times I have found myself lost in my Facebook feed when I swear I only intended to check that notification. Sometimes it is like I fell into some kind of Facebook coma, not even sure how I got where I ended up, lost in a maze of memes as snarky status updates.
When I fall into of these technology-induced psychoses, I am missing SOMETHING that my boys are doing (unless of course it falls within the golden hours of bedtime). It might be as small as my oldest willingly giving his brother a toy instead of the toddler having to snatch what he believes to be rightfully his by some unknown code of child conduct. It might be something bigger like the two sneaking a top secret brother hug, the kind that stops your heart and renews faith in humanity.
Newborns don’t stay that way forever, just as infants will eventually turn to toddlers, toddlers to preschoolers, and then before you know it your little 6 pound, 6 ounce baby boy is wiping his own butt, marrying the girl you hoped he would never find but couldn’t be happier that he did.
Enjoy the endless diaper changes, the multiple wakes during the night and the constant smell of baby formula that has latched itself within your nostrils. The day will come that that little newborn won’t need you for these things and suddenly you will be only a spectator in their life, relishing the past and those late night snuggles with the only ones that have your whole heart.
