I am feeling really guilty.
I have just watched a video of kids talking about how they feel about their parents’ addiction to technology.
“My mum, she spends all day on her computer and I feel sad because I won’t get to play with her on a board game or something,” says one little girl, looking miserable.
“They kind of just make me feel like they don’t care about us,” adds a softly spoken young boy, “because they’re just like on their phone.”
Ouch. I wonder what my kids would say about me, if someone with a camera asked them?
Most days, after I pick my kids up from school, I take them to the playground. I am, technically, still at work, so I check my work emails.
And then I check Facebook. I can’t help it. I have interesting friends. They do interesting stuff. They post links to interesting articles.
Then my kids ask me to play freeze tag with them, and I do. And for 10 minutes, I get that satisfaction that comes from being able to run faster than a five-year-old.
It's a constant thing, parents being made to feel guilty about using their phones.
Last week, I read an article saying that kids were starting school unable to speak properly because their parents were "too busy checking their phones to talk to them". The UK's shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, compared parents using their phones around kids to parents smoking while their kids were in the car.
Ouch. Ouch!
I'm sure there are parents out there who do ignore their kids because they're more interested in their phones. But those are probably the kind of parents who would have been playing video games a few years ago, or watching TV a few years before that, or reading the newspaper a few years before that.
There is a danger of looking at our phones too much. But I don't think most of us should feel guilty. Look at it this way.
Our phones mean we don't have to be trapped at a desk when we're working. We can spend more time with our kids.
Our phones mean we don't get bored out of our brains at the playground. We can stay there longer and let the kids have more fun.