You care more about your phone than me!
- By Lisa Soesbe
- •
- 05 Oct, 2018
- •
A hard pill to swallow
Nowadays it is rare to be without a cell phone. People go into panic mode if they don't have their cell phone with them at all times. There are many positive and negative effects from this. Have you ever thought about how this affects children?
Before cell phones and tablets, families used to connect after a long day and talk. Now we have many distractions like television, radio, internet, cell phones, etc. and we are losing that quality time together because we are addicted to technology. I don't know about you but I certainly do not like that we have notifications on our smartphones for everything! I have had to make a conscious effort to put my phone on DO NOT DISTURB if I want to get something accomplished. The only message that I would need to get is my husband or other family or a business related call. All other notifications get turned off when I need to focus on accomplishing a task. And have you ever thought about how much you are on your devices? It is hard to limit your child's device use if they see you on yours all of the time. You have to set the example.
Have you ever paid attention to how much you are on your phone and how this affects your children? I got a rude awakening one-day last year when my son repeatedly told me that I was on my phone too much and that he felt that I cared more about my phone than him. Ouch! That was a hard pill to swallow. And in a way he was right, the at home job I had at that time did take me away from him, and my daughter a lot more than I wanted it to. It required me to be on phone calls and type numerous emails and to him it felt like I was always on my phone. Though this was a hard pill to swallow for me, I listened to what he said and made a conscious effort to be on my phone as little as possible when my kids were around. I even changed jobs so that I could work while they are still sleeping in the morning. With the power of the internet, I can work from home online, serving someone in a different timezone far far away before my kids even wake up. This change really helped a lot. Now the majority of what I need done online is done before my children wake up and the rest of the day is devoted to teaching them academic things and life skills. When they have their play time away from me, I sneak in some work and let's be honest, some social time too. Social media is a way to stay connected to other adults when you are a stay at home parent. It is just a fact. As long as we limit that time for ourselves we can have a healthy balance.
Children will let you know what they need if you are willing to listen to them. If they need your attention they will let you know one way or another. Sometimes they will show you by misbehaving. Pay attention to these things because sometimes the smallest change is all that is needed to fix these issues. Parenting is the hardest and most rewarding job there is. It is up to us as parents to figure out what works best for our kids and how to help them. If something isn't working make a change and see what happens. Sometimes miracles happen when we stop and listen.
Before cell phones and tablets, families used to connect after a long day and talk. Now we have many distractions like television, radio, internet, cell phones, etc. and we are losing that quality time together because we are addicted to technology. I don't know about you but I certainly do not like that we have notifications on our smartphones for everything! I have had to make a conscious effort to put my phone on DO NOT DISTURB if I want to get something accomplished. The only message that I would need to get is my husband or other family or a business related call. All other notifications get turned off when I need to focus on accomplishing a task. And have you ever thought about how much you are on your devices? It is hard to limit your child's device use if they see you on yours all of the time. You have to set the example.
Have you ever paid attention to how much you are on your phone and how this affects your children? I got a rude awakening one-day last year when my son repeatedly told me that I was on my phone too much and that he felt that I cared more about my phone than him. Ouch! That was a hard pill to swallow. And in a way he was right, the at home job I had at that time did take me away from him, and my daughter a lot more than I wanted it to. It required me to be on phone calls and type numerous emails and to him it felt like I was always on my phone. Though this was a hard pill to swallow for me, I listened to what he said and made a conscious effort to be on my phone as little as possible when my kids were around. I even changed jobs so that I could work while they are still sleeping in the morning. With the power of the internet, I can work from home online, serving someone in a different timezone far far away before my kids even wake up. This change really helped a lot. Now the majority of what I need done online is done before my children wake up and the rest of the day is devoted to teaching them academic things and life skills. When they have their play time away from me, I sneak in some work and let's be honest, some social time too. Social media is a way to stay connected to other adults when you are a stay at home parent. It is just a fact. As long as we limit that time for ourselves we can have a healthy balance.
Children will let you know what they need if you are willing to listen to them. If they need your attention they will let you know one way or another. Sometimes they will show you by misbehaving. Pay attention to these things because sometimes the smallest change is all that is needed to fix these issues. Parenting is the hardest and most rewarding job there is. It is up to us as parents to figure out what works best for our kids and how to help them. If something isn't working make a change and see what happens. Sometimes miracles happen when we stop and listen.
Have you ever bribed your children with sweet treats to get them to do something? Let’s face it, we have all done this before. I’ll be the first one to say I have done this until I realized why I should stop the cycle.
In schools, sporting clubs, and other activities where children are involved, people reward children with candy and other unhealthy snacks. There are even popular lesson plans used in schools that include using M&M’s or Skittles; after the children use the treats for their lesson, they get to eat them as their reward. In American society, this has now become the norm. Go to the barbershop and Johnny gets a treat because he sat so nicely for his haircut. Go to dance class and little Mary gets a piece of candy at the end of class. Go to the bank and Joey gets a lollipop for being a good boy in the bank. It goes on and on. The people that assume that this is okay think, “What’s the big deal?”. This may even be you! I will tell you why this is such a big deal. This is affecting our children both physically and emotionally.
In schools, sporting clubs, and other activities where children are involved, people reward children with candy and other unhealthy snacks. There are even popular lesson plans used in schools that include using M&M’s or Skittles; after the children use the treats for their lesson, they get to eat them as their reward. In American society, this has now become the norm. Go to the barbershop and Johnny gets a treat because he sat so nicely for his haircut. Go to dance class and little Mary gets a piece of candy at the end of class. Go to the bank and Joey gets a lollipop for being a good boy in the bank. It goes on and on. The people that assume that this is okay think, “What’s the big deal?”. This may even be you! I will tell you why this is such a big deal. This is affecting our children both physically and emotionally.
If there is one thing I am good at, it is stretching a dollar. This is one reason I love getting gift cards for gifts. I know that I am great at getting as much out of that gift card that I can by shopping myself. It is like a game for me to see how much stuff I can get with a gift card paired with sales and coupons. Call me weird but it saves me money! I do the same thing when it comes to purchasing groceries. I have standards when it comes to the food I am eating and feeding my family. Food is one of the most important things that you buy and what kind of food you are buying matters in terms of your health. So while I would much rather to be able to purchase good food than sport a luxury purse or designer clothing, I still like to stretch my food dollars as much as possible. If I told you that you can actually get cash back for eating healthy, would you believe me?
I want to share a little hack I discovered a long time ago that I use a lot and pretty much for any online shopping. Have you ever heard of Ebates ? If you are not a member, you are going to want to click on the word Ebates anywhere in this post and sign up today because it will save you lots of money on anything you buy and if you use the referral link, once you sign up and spend $25 or more, you will get $10. If you are not a member you have nothing to lose because it costs you nothing. Do you shop online at all? Chances are your favorite retailer is on Ebates and you will get paid for your normal shopping routine just by signing into Ebates first and then going to your favorite site. Some examples of stores I am talking about are Target, Walmart, Kohl's and even Amazon! You simply must check this out.
Now, let me tell you about how I get cash back for eating healthy. My hack is to log in to Ebates and then shop the sales on Vitacost.com. Vitacost is an online health and wellness store with over 45,000 products. They also tend to have the best prices on most things. This gives me great savings because I can buy stuff like organic coconut milk, raw nuts, soy free chocolate chips, nut butters, and gluten-free flours as well as personal care items like deodorant, shampoo and conditioner from Vitacost when it is on sale and if I am buying through Ebates I will normally get at least 3% cash back from Vitacost. They also offer free 2-day shipping on orders over $49 so I usually order stuff that I will need for the month in one order so that I can save on shipping as well.
I want to share a little hack I discovered a long time ago that I use a lot and pretty much for any online shopping. Have you ever heard of Ebates ? If you are not a member, you are going to want to click on the word Ebates anywhere in this post and sign up today because it will save you lots of money on anything you buy and if you use the referral link, once you sign up and spend $25 or more, you will get $10. If you are not a member you have nothing to lose because it costs you nothing. Do you shop online at all? Chances are your favorite retailer is on Ebates and you will get paid for your normal shopping routine just by signing into Ebates first and then going to your favorite site. Some examples of stores I am talking about are Target, Walmart, Kohl's and even Amazon! You simply must check this out.
Now, let me tell you about how I get cash back for eating healthy. My hack is to log in to Ebates and then shop the sales on Vitacost.com. Vitacost is an online health and wellness store with over 45,000 products. They also tend to have the best prices on most things. This gives me great savings because I can buy stuff like organic coconut milk, raw nuts, soy free chocolate chips, nut butters, and gluten-free flours as well as personal care items like deodorant, shampoo and conditioner from Vitacost when it is on sale and if I am buying through Ebates I will normally get at least 3% cash back from Vitacost. They also offer free 2-day shipping on orders over $49 so I usually order stuff that I will need for the month in one order so that I can save on shipping as well.
How we prevented a potentially bad situation by paying close attention
In the words of Ellen Degeneres, "Be Kind to One Another"
