5. Zero screen week-end 3/4
It is now well past 4PM and all is quiet in the Fielding household. I am slowly creeping up the stairs, which is hard in our house as everything creaks: steps, floorboards, doors ...
I know my young ones' equipment (even the word iPhone hurts me now, sorry Steve Jobs, you fallen hero of mine) is downstairs back under lock and key. Yet I am not at rest as I know they can be so good at retrieving these things from me (plenty of crazy stories on that topic). So I go and do my round.đ
All ok for number 1. He is dreaming on his bed. He calls it being bored out of his skull but we do not care about the choice of words here.
Number 2 is the rebel (with a cause): she is working on her laptop and at the same time using the phone to discuss the work with others in the class. I am letting that go thinking I am a bad mum. My baby girl is on a really tough Maths course and sometimes my heart sinks for her when she's working so hard. I am a soft mum and that is close to being a bad mum.
Number 3 is nowhere to be seen. I am thinking she is hiding somewhere under the bed with some sort of screen (I am being obsessive, this is driving me mad) so I shout her name ... only to find her sleepy face lifting up from under the covers among the cuddly bears. Now I feel guilty to have interrupted her well-deserved rest. Remember she was doing homework and that is maybe why she is so tired! The I-am-a-bad-mum feeling is creeping back up on me once more.
Number 4 is lying down half on the bed half on the floor (how is that even possible? Could I do that when I was her age?) It stinks of nail varnish in this tiny bedroom of hers.
- I hope you are not putting nail varnish on in your bedroom.
- Of course not! What makes you say that?
- ... Nothing ... Where is your phone? You need to concentrate on that work. It is important.
- Mum! Can I do my work in peace? My phone is downstairs!
So I run downstairs like mad, rush to the mantelpiece and oh thank goodness it's there. I can relax. After all she is in second year uni!
Maybe I am mad. But I am happy to be mad.
Mum: 2 Kids: 1
I know my young ones' equipment (even the word iPhone hurts me now, sorry Steve Jobs, you fallen hero of mine) is downstairs back under lock and key. Yet I am not at rest as I know they can be so good at retrieving these things from me (plenty of crazy stories on that topic). So I go and do my round.đ
All ok for number 1. He is dreaming on his bed. He calls it being bored out of his skull but we do not care about the choice of words here.
Number 2 is the rebel (with a cause): she is working on her laptop and at the same time using the phone to discuss the work with others in the class. I am letting that go thinking I am a bad mum. My baby girl is on a really tough Maths course and sometimes my heart sinks for her when she's working so hard. I am a soft mum and that is close to being a bad mum.
Number 3 is nowhere to be seen. I am thinking she is hiding somewhere under the bed with some sort of screen (I am being obsessive, this is driving me mad) so I shout her name ... only to find her sleepy face lifting up from under the covers among the cuddly bears. Now I feel guilty to have interrupted her well-deserved rest. Remember she was doing homework and that is maybe why she is so tired! The I-am-a-bad-mum feeling is creeping back up on me once more.
Number 4 is lying down half on the bed half on the floor (how is that even possible? Could I do that when I was her age?) It stinks of nail varnish in this tiny bedroom of hers.
- I hope you are not putting nail varnish on in your bedroom.
- Of course not! What makes you say that?
- ... Nothing ... Where is your phone? You need to concentrate on that work. It is important.
- Mum! Can I do my work in peace? My phone is downstairs!
So I run downstairs like mad, rush to the mantelpiece and oh thank goodness it's there. I can relax. After all she is in second year uni!
Maybe I am mad. But I am happy to be mad.
Mum: 2 Kids: 1
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