Yeah, sit on the curb and stare at their cell phone.
All the worse for them.
I heard a story once about a boy who walked into a 7-11 and walked past a bunch of curb dwellers. He was wearing something that was a little out of place. Outdoor gear of some type.
The curb dwellers began teasing him and he said, well, I have this gear on because I’m just getting back from a week of backpacking where I hiked 50 miles, camped on the side of a cliff and ran off a bear (or something like that)
Shut the curb dwellers right up.
Here’s another concept-Be a parent and take the phone away. Show them that they will live without it for a few hours.
Side note. For the most part, we practiced the parenting techniques in this article. I firmly believe that my job is to teach my kids to be slightly more independent every single day.
My youngest is now 18. At Christmas, we went back home to Michigan for a couple weeks. He wanted to go with some friends to the Upper Peninsula. There was a small blizzard and ice storm so I told him to remember to be careful and off they went.
Most of the UP is cellular dead zone.
Since I knew he was pretty resourceful and responsible, I gave it no thought at all.