Most Powerful Parenting Tool
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One of the most valuable tools you have as a parent is the “Do Not Disturb” button on your phone. 🌙
More than ever these days, we (myself included) need to use it more. Undivided attention pays dividends.
While not entirely perfect, I put my phone on do not disturb today for several hours in the morning and had a day date with my youngest daughter.
The best part is, we did a whole lot of nothing… and it was amazing.
☕️ We went and got a Starbucks cake pop and just sat there at a table talking about sweet nothings. I sipped my coffee and she devoured her dessert.
📚Then we went to the library. She picked out random books and I read as many pages as I could out loud until she saw a new one she wanted me to read.
🛏️ Back home where she snuggled up in mom and dads bed with a movie and a snack… don't tell mom… or older sister who missed out.
And that was it.
But it was wonderful.
I checked my phone and responded to a few things, but I wasn’t being pulled away from the moments with her from random buzzes in my pocket.
I am FAR from having all this figured out. I won’t even tell you what my average screen time number is 😬
Moral of the story, theres not a ton that we have control over;
We can’t control the emails that come in
We can’t control who texts us
We can’t control the moods of our clients
We can’t control random emergencies that pop up
But we CAN put our phone on do not disturb and consciously work on setting better boundaries for WHEN we respond to those out of control items…
As an example, I’m writing this now with my youngest running around the house and a movie on in the background. Probably not the best time to write this, but here we are. I’m going to take my own advice and shut it down now for the night.