Joy

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

On My Mind


I'm sure everyone has read or heard this touching poem.http://laybabylay.com/advice-from-my-mama/

Isn't it funny how times have changed? I believe we young mothers have so many more distractions to pull us from our children than a late 50's mother did.  I'm sure not tempted to get up from snuggling with Joy or Claire to go dust the blinds or mop the floors. For me this poem should read.

Oh, blogging and pinning
can wait til tomorrow,
but children grow up,
as I've learned to my sorrow.
so quiet down facebook,
phone go to sleep,
I'm rocking my baby.
Babies don't keep.

I have been feeling convicted in this area for awhile now.  I always hear those heart-warming stories of women whose children recount that "Every morning I came downstairs, my mom was sitting in her chair reading her Bible."   What are my children going to say about me?  That every morning they came downstairs I was looking at pointless status updates on facebook?  There are so many productive things I should be doing but all too often I get online to "look up a recipe" and before I know it an hour has gone by and I can't even remember what I originally got on the computer for in the first place.

I was talking about this topic with my mom so when she came across a blog post, How To Miss a Childhood, she sent it to me.  I highly recommend all parents read, not just mothers.  Talk about convicting!  Now, just to set the record straight, I do not spend hours and hours online each day and thankfully I have a cell phone that can only text and make calls, but after reading that post I became aware of how many times Claire says "Look at me Mommy!" and I answer with "hold on" while I click on one more link, picture, page, tutorial etc.  I don't think we realize that children are not as impressed with technology as we are and they have no idea what we are doing when we are at the computer.  All they see is that whatever game being played, e-mail being read, or photo being posted is more important to us than they are.  I could be looking up a play-doh recipe to try later in the day but Claire does not know or appreciate that, she wants me watch her as she practices a new skill or show me that she can now write a perfect letter "e".

Babies do grow up, childhood is short.  How many precious and irreplaceable moments are missed each day while we unknowingly use technology to isolate ourselves from our families?

2 comments:

  1. I feel like you spoke what has been on my heart and prayers! A great fear of mine is this! I sure love how you put it into words! Thank you so much Kathleen for sharing and reminding a mom like me that although I attempt to use the internet SO OFTEN for good...the dangers can far outweigh the positives if I am not extremely careful and intentional with it. I am sharing this, I hope you do not mind! You are precious!

    ReplyDelete