My latest article at FathersForGood.com:
“About once a week, my wife and I take our kids to a local indoor playground. We usually know what to expect: dozens of kids running around and screaming chaotically. If you closed your eyes, you wouldn’t be able to tell whether you were in an orangutan exhibit or the midst of the apocalypse.
But something else strikes me each time we go. After setting our kids loose, I glance around at the other parents and almost to a person, each one sits in the same odd position: head bent down at a 45-degree angle, eyes glued to a small screen, fingers quickly tapping as if they were playing a miniature piano.
Despite the fact that the most surprising and wonderful creatures in the world are zig-zagging right in front of them, their attention is locked onto their iPhones. In fact, one day I was sitting next to a mom who was playing Space Invaders on her phone for half an hour. Her son came up to her several times, tugging on her forearm and begging for her to watch him do what can only be described as a mix between Irish dancing and karate, but she waved him off again and again.
Because she was too busy. With Space Invaders.”
(Photo: Son of the South)