I think we can all relate to these "blink moments". As I lay outside Sawyers door to prevent him from escaping I reflect back on where we started, where we are now and how we got here.. I think.. "How are you big enough and strong enough to climb out of your crib, I feel like yesterday you were dependant on me to get out of your bed."
I find myself panicked and trying to clamour onto having babies, and not toddlers.. Because before I know it they will be asking for the car keys and moving out.
I feel blessed to have experienced everything I have so far with our children.. But I ask myself.. What have I missed?
In today's society we are all "busy and distracted". It comes in many forms from busy work life, family life right down to the hours we all dedicate to social media or our phones in general.
As we all know as parents, time goes by so fast. It's easy for us all to get caught up in everything and sometimes makes us miss the important things in life. One issue Brett and I have acknowledge as a growing issue not only in our home but in society as a whole is the need to be always "connected", "plugged in". Our dependence on technology and social media has taken away precious time that will never be given back to us.
I noticed this as a major problem in our home around a year ago. One might say we both had an addiction to being "connected"
Yes.. Hello, my name is Justin and I am a Phoneaholic.. Sounds ridiculous? Yes.. But I realized this was a problem and had two choices.. Take back these precious moments and ensure I do not miss the special memories life throws at me every day or miss out and place my family secondary to my phone..
Day one of Brett and i's phone challenge.. We placed our phones on the coffee table and mentally counted how many times we reached for our phones.. Wanting to scan through Facebook, Instagram, News pages, etc.. The amount of times we reached for our phones was terrifying..
It really showed us in the following days and weeks the incredibly dependence and importance we were putting on something that should be secondary to our children and our relationship.
We also became much more observant to what was happening around us.. Particularly when we go out for dinner.. We would observe couples, once so in love with eachother, but that love being distracted so much that they spent their date night out, each on their own phones and not even talking to eachother.
Through this realization we decided we needed to "park" our phones away from us when we got home from work to ensure our focus was on our children and eachother.. Are we perfect every day? No.. Do we faultier to our "addiction", yes..
The result in our efforts for change is a stronger relationship between Brett and I and being more present with our children. It warms my heart that my children see my adorning eyes as they learn and play rather then the back of my phone.
What I have learnt through this entire process is life is precious.. And we can't take a moment for granted. 23 months have flown by and if I didn't make this realization when I did, what I would have missed out on is something I don't want to even imagine.
Love for today my friends because we never know what tomorrow shall bring.
Blog again soon ☺️
Justin
