Mind Blown

My mind was blown away the other day, at a brunch place.

We are living in a time that cellphone is consuming everyone’s life and huge chunk of time every day. We see couples at a restaurant, on their own phone, without talking to each other much, we see teenagers typing away at dinner table not communicating with their parents, we see little kids sitting in their high chairs watching videos and parents having frustrated faces that they can’t get any attention from their kids.

However, today, it was totally opposite. And frankly, I felt quite annoyed by it.

At the table next to us, sat a family of 3. A middle-aged mom, dad and a teenage daughter, about 15 years old. Yes, a cellphone was being used pretty much the whole entire meal. But, it was the mom. Yes, the mom. No offense, probably the last person most of us would think to be using the cellphone the whole time. Her back was facing me, so I had a very clear view of her phone the entire time –  it was a game. Sad.

I kept looking over at that table, the girl was talking a lot, telling something to the parents, apparently something she was really excited about. Dad was paying attention to her, looking at her and responding. Mom had the phone up in her face, resting her elbows on the table, focusing on her game the entire time.

I almost felt ashamed, as a mom. I know it’s not me, but I felt that shame, a mom was doing this. I don’t mean dads should be doing this, or kids should be doing this. I am a strong believer that a cellphone is essential, sometimes can be life saving. But family time is so important, especially meal time. So many memories happen at dinner tables, stories told, love spread.

It’s been a couple of days since this happened, but the strong feeling stuck in my head, and I remember the girl looked at the mom while she was playing her game, I saw the disappointment in her eyes, that her mom wasn’t paying attention to what she was saying. I remember when I was a kid, the disappointment I had when my parents were too busy to pay attention to me. It happens to the best of us, regardless how much time we have, but at least, we can make sure we are not playing out little cellphone games at dinner tables when a teenager is happy telling us stories, don’t you agree?