Parents and the mobile distraction

At the Silverbird Cinema, Abuja last weekend the following incidences occurred.

At the car park of the complex, two boys who looked between the ages of eight and four year along with their father were each carrying bags of shopping when his phone went off. Instantly, he swung his bag in the direction of one of the girls as he struggled to get his phone out of his tight jeans pocket.

Not knowing at which of the boys in particular he had swung his bag, he hit the older one whom in trying to avoid the bag smacking his face tripped on his brother who then landed bum first on the ground as he crashed on top of him bringing them both to the ground.

Tugging at his mother’s dress, the little boy, probably aged three or younger tried as hard as he could to get his mother’s attention as her bent head and hands seemed in prayer mode while she punched away on her mobile device.

“Mummy, mummy,” the boy called out when he couldn’t get her to look at him. “Wait, I’m coming” was his mother’s response as a smile crept over her face; not at her child but as an expression of some kind of satisfaction that whatever she was engrossed in was giving her. A few seconds later, the child was standing in a little pool of his urine whose borders he was further extending and mapping out with his right foot.

“Oh my God,” his mother exclaimed when she raised her head and saw what he was doing. It was only then she picked up with a bit of struggle as he had become reluctant to leave his new creation.

This raised a question of how distracted parents have become in recent times by handheld devices and if there is a way about it to avoid ugly incidences.

Our reporter followed her into the restroom. After a bit of chitchat and playing with her son, she asked the woman who refused to give her name, if she thought she could have avoided the embarrassment by first attending to her son and going back to what she was doing. She simply shrugged her shoulders saying, “It was a little urgent and I felt that I could finish that first and then buy him what he wanted if I could afford it. It didn’t occur to me that he may have wanted to urinate and that’s why he was trying to get my attention. I started potty training him and forgot he didn’t have any pampers on.”

Looking at the screen of the phone, our reporter realised she was playing ‘Angry birds’, a game described as very addictive and absolutely fun.

Tenable an excuse if it were entirely true, some might consider this, but Mrs. Emmanuella Azubuike said parents do not have any excuse for being negligent especially when that excuse is based on their concentration with Blackberry phones or other such devices.

“It’s really pathetic and rather annoying the way the youths have become besieged by new technology and how these things have taken over their lives,” the fifty one year-old said.

“The digital age is a blessing but I also say to a large extent it is a curse. The laxity we show and lackadaisical attitude we implore to issues that ordinarily should be treated with urgency and care no longer receive that attention because we are too busy pinging, facebooking, texting and all that. It’s really alarming and something needs to be done about it.

Mr. Elvis Ikomi said, “In the past we complained that parents were not living up to their roles in caring for their children because they had house-helps. Today GSM phones, iPads’, tablets and such devices seem to be the reason many parents cannot give the full attention to their children.”

Admitting that he is sometimes guilty, the thirty eight year-old father of three said, “I’m trying to use my Blackberry and iPad less often than I used to when my children are around. It’s not been easy but my wife is ensuring that I pull through with it.

“She suddenly came up with something she calls ‘alone time with daddy’. At such times she disappears and I’m on my own with the children. This forces me to pay attention especially with the youngest being eighteen months and in that exploring/discovery age.”

Every now and again we read reports of accidents that occur because the drivers were distracted by their phones. Parents nowadays seem to be heading for such disasters and need to pull the reigns of their mobile device addictions.