This image has been bopping around on social media - a notice of a Daycare telling parents to get off their cell phones when dropping off or picking up their children.
Here is what the notice says:
"You are picking up your child!
GET OFF YOUR PHONE!!!!
Your child is happy to see you! Are you happy to see your child??
We have seen children trying to hand their parents their work they completed and the parent is on the phone. We have heard a child say "Mommy, mommy, mommy..." and the parent is paying more attention to their phone than their own child.
It is appalling.
Get off your phone!!"
How do you feel about that? I know the message has only the best intentions, and they are trying to get parents to recognize that paying attention to your kids (who are hurtling towards you at break-neck speeds when they are done school) is seriously important at this time of day. They are worthy of our undivided attention, 100%. I would never disagree with that!
But sometimes I understand that an emergency at work, or a work call is important too. We try so hard to do our best for our children, while working full-time jobs. So maybe 1 out of 10 times you have to make a call or shoot a text message. Maybe seeing a message posted like this could really ruffle your feathers.
Daycare centers and schools around the world could put up a friendlier notice regarding pick-up and drop-off times requiring your phone to be put away. Perhaps they could even sent a cute little note home about the circumstances. I do cringe when I see the same parent on their phone the entire time, every day at pick-up time. But who am I to judge?
How would you have felt if this notice was posted at your child's school? What is your view on keeping the phone put away during these times?
I think the idea is excellent, the way it's worded, offensive
But is it not offensive to your kid to be trying to communicate with you and u ignoring them as your on your phone
Hmm, might be a hoax? I've never even once seen a parent on their phone during pick up or drop off. We take care of it before we go in... because we are so excited too!
They can't handle the truth!
It's not offensive at all... more like accurate. And sad too :(
no one enjoys hearing the truth,, poor people and their feelings were hurt, imagine how hurt their child's feeling are, being in competition with a phone...
People are so easily offended nowadays. If someone is offended - good! Maybe they will actually pay attention and change. If this sign politely asked "Please turn off your phone" it would be ignored and nothing would change. Sometimes shaming people is the only way to get them to change. It is getting the attention that it is precisely because it's telling it like it is.
Those who are on their phones during pick up, during parent interviews, during Christmas concerts (Yes, you heard that right.), and at family meals in restaurants might be offended by being asked to put their phones away. Okay by me. I would add a note. "Junior is watching you today, learning how to be a teenager, a parent, a child to an aging parent.When you want to talk to him when he is a teenager, will he stare at his phone? How about when he has kids of his own? Will he take calls when they need him? How about when you are old, in a nursing home and he comes to visit? Be the adult you want your child to become. It all begins here."