Yeah, you’re giving your son a bath…but you have your phone out. Yeah, you took your daughter to the park, but you’re checking fantasy football scores while you push her on the swing. Yeah, you got the whole family together for dinner, but are any of you really present? Or are you lost to social media?
It’s not enough to just be around your kids. You have to actually be there. That means putting away your phone. That means putting away their phone, if they have one. They deserve phone-free time from you. You deserve phone-free time with them.
So try to limit your dependence on your smartphone as much as possible. Get a landline at home so you don’t carry your cell around at home. Stop using your phone as an alarm clock. Charge it in some inconvenient place so it’s out of sight, out of mind. Commit, in the mornings for instance, not to check your phone for your first thirty minutes after waking up. Or put it away from dinner until the kids’ bedtime. Whatever. Make up some rules that give you phone-free time—that give your kids phone-free Dad time.
P.S. This was originally sent on Sep 5 2019. Sign up today for the Daily Dad’s email and get our popular 11 page eBook, “20 Things Great Dads Do Everyday”.
