I hear that. I was a stay-at-home mom for a lot of years. I used to tell people that I was very picky about who was rearing my children. I stood before God and took a vow that I would do everything within my power to rear my babies the way He'd want them reared. I took those vows very seriously. Have you seen that stupid cell phone commercial about "staying connected" that starts with the close up of the woman yakking away on her phone? Then it pulls back, and you see her, still yakking and laughing away, while she's pushing a small child on a swing in a park. She's not even looking at the child, just pushing with her free hand. Then, it comes up with "stay connected to what matters" or some such verbiage. It's a stunning indictment of our culture.
I'm usually in the middle of things watching and/or playing with my kids. Rest of the parents are surfing the web on their smart phones.
I've always wondered what makes them think that its more important to check their email for 50th time that day, rather than play with their kids? Fools, all.
And, as an aside, I never cease to be amazed at how - I duon't know what the right word is, Desperate, maybe? - some kids are just to have a grownup listen to them. I had one little boy fill in myself and my youngest on all of the latest "Transformers" robots at the park this past weekend. He was a real chatterbox>