Posted on 10/16/2011 4:29:40 AM PDT by Kaslin
This past week I saw a sad sight. No, it wasn’t Eric Holder trying to convince us that he’s now a terror exposing hero instead of the perpetrator of a deadly Mexican gunrunning op that had its sights set on ultimately getting our Second Amendment rights revoked—though that was pretty sad, as that dog wag had all the subtleties of a Chaz Bono rumba.
What eclipsed that miserable moment (sorta) and caused me grief this week was watching a young mom at Starbucks ignoring her beautiful, little one-year-old girl while said moron giggled and texted for 30 plus minutes.
Yep, with her head buried in the phone, nose two inches off the cancer screen, mommy dearest didn’t have a clue what her kid was doing as she crawled around on a high traffic, grime-laden cement floor between the feet of strangers who held 16- ounce cups of 180 degree liquid above the kid’s tender flesh as they high stepped over her.
Hey, parents, here’s a freebie from Dr. Doug: Why not put the cell phone and gadgets down for awhile when your babies are around and pay attention to them, all right, jackass? There’ll be plenty of time later in life to ignore them—like in college, when they pierce their nipples and become whiny liberal drips, but now, when they are very young, is not the time.
FYI to Y-O-U, mom … dad: You’ve got one shot at raising that baby, and if you want to make certain your spawn doesn’t:
1. Recite hate poems about you at Barnes & Noble’s open mic night regarding how they’d like to stab you in your sleep for ignoring them for the last sixteen years.
2. Show up high as a kite at a NYC Flea Party Rally, bitching and moaning about hard work and shouting up Che Guevara’s weltanschauung as they roast a fatty …
… then you might wanna give junior some TLC while he’s a T-O-T. You dig?
As I watched this neglect go down at Starbucks, I kept thinking that this daft dame could have cooed and cuddled with her little bambina and had 1,800 seconds of parental bliss that lovely morning.
The Starbucks I visited was on beautiful Miami Beach. Mom could have pointed out to baby the seagulls, the palm trees, the gorgeous skies, the warm sun, the six-foot three-inch trannie with a five o’clock shadow, the rats rummaging through the trash eating discarded ham and cheese paninis, and the ubiquitous metrosexuals with over-tweaked eyebrows who use seven words to order their special cup of Joe. It could’ve been both a bonding and educational familial exchange in one warm whack. But no. The bird had to text.
Here’s a challenge for the parental units: If you think I’m full of crap in regard to the ramifications of blowing your kids off as you obsess with texts and/or social media then let’s do an experiment: For the next 13 years abandon the developmental stages of that genetic concoction of yours, and we’ll see how they turn out as you snub them for Twitter. Are you ready? Okay. On your mark. Get set. Go, Slingblade!
Oh and by the way, conservatives and evangelicals … you, too, can be dilatory dillweeds as this sin knows no party or religious affiliation. I know stacks of family values blowhards out there yapping about the importance of family who haven’t talked to their own family in the last few weeks. Hey, dork, save your house first … then talk to us about ours. I know way too many ministers who strode forth to save the world and lost their kids in the process. Didn’t the apostle Paul say something to the effect that if you can’t govern your own house then you need to shut the hell up?
And finally, if my exhortation to selfless and sacrificial love for your kids versus your gadgets has failed to convince you to change your behavior toward your toddlers, perhaps a selfish plea will. Soon, parents, in the not too distant future, you will return to the dependent state from whence you came, and I’m a guessin’ that the child you ignored while he or she was in diapers will more than likely return the favor when you are sporting Depends.
Let alone texting, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times in the last year when I’ve said to myself, Gee, wish I had a cell phone.
Not always. I work I a busy hospital where I need to contact colleagues all day long. Choice one is to page them, then sit at the phone for 5 minutes while I wait for a call back. Choice 2 is to call their cell. About 80% of the time they will be with a payment and unable to answer. By the time they listen to voicemail and call me back, I will be with a patient and unable to respond. Choice 3 is to send a text message they can look at and reply in a similar fashion at the first convenient moment. Guess which method of communication gets used where I work?
BTW none of my colleagues are stunted or incapable of writing
Sorry. Autocorrect translated patient to payment. My bad! I need to learn better typing skills on the ipad
i loathe talking on the phone... i especially hate making phone calls... i love email, i love texting and i pray to get someone's answering machine or voicemail when i do make a call... even as a teenager, i hated talking on the phone... i do think it's gross to ignore your kids while texting... i see that often...
In your case it makes all the sense in the world. But how do you deal with someone like me who doesn’t carry a cell phone around with me at all times — and often has it turned off even when I have it with me?
This may sound like a subtle difference here, but how is texting any more effective in your situation than e-mail?
You probably aren't worth dealing with if you can't be bothered with having a way for people to get in touch with you. You expect people to track you down?
Not everyone gets email on their smartphone, and email is more difficult to answer with a phone. When I am with a patient the text makes a sound less annoying than my pager, and I know to check it at my earliest opportunity. Email might not be checked until I am at my computer at the end of the day
Let’s see...I’m in Baghdad, a grown daughter in college in the Western US, a grown one in Louisiana, and two young ones in Turkey. Text is good for me or better yet, emails that are pushed immediately. Don’t judge everyone people, you don’t know their circumstances. Might be a family with hubby over here for all you know and that was the time to make contact......although the part about the baby crawling around all over the floor wasn’t good. I want all of them to know Dad is contactable 24/7...even here.
I’m the same way. I hate talking on the phone. Hate hate hate it. I spend the entire time pacing around, one finger in my ear, yelling “WHAT WAS THAT??” I’m not hard of hearing, I just can’t process voices unless I can see the face too. Moreover, I hate being trapped with someone who doesn’t take the cues that you want off the phone. I’d rather email any day. I do limit texting to stuff like “Be there in 20 minutes” and “Are you already at the meeting?”
I have problems with texting but I can't agree with that. Texting involves typing and grammar. If texting didn't exist, people would be using the phone. If anything, texting is a return to the fading world of writing letters. I work with kids, and while I argue about texting, I certainly don't see their writing skills as suffering for it.
It's the content I find objectionable. Just casually saying those who text are incapable of writing simply doesn't make sense to me. I mean, they're writing.
I’ve never texted anyone in my life. When i’m reading FR.. chances are i’m nursing a baby. Freeping and feeding ;)
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