Mommy, Put Down Your Phone

You guys, we went on a small family vacation for a long weekend this past week and it was awesome.

If I could, I'd share a picture of Ellie sliding down the slide at the waterpark with her Daddy right after she stuck her finger in her mouth and 'whistled' (mimicking the lifeguards with their whistles - SO FUNNY!) for me to not catch her and to get out of the way. I'd share a picture of her talking to the parrot in our hotel lobby saying 'Hey Paco! Don't you member me? I'm ELLIE!' or I'd share a picture of her standing in her undies on our balcony looking through her grandfather's binoculars at the ducks. But I don't have any of those. I don't have any because aside from the one or two pictures I quickly snapped while we went out for ice cream and the one we took the morning we left I didn't have my phone much. 

Admittedly, I'm probably one of those moms. You know, the one that shares a ton of pictures of her kid and all the fun they have. The one that documents every step, stage and event? I'm okay with that. I like looking back at all the stages of EK's little life and seeing the memories. But this past weekend, I was the mom that was in the moment.

We visited the Great Smokies Lodge, in Tennessee complete with a ginormous indoor/outdoor waterpark and an arcade and indoor play area that would make your 8 year old self jealous. It was a kid's heaven. But here's the thing, more often than not I noticed the moms not joining in on the fun. Most of them stood in the 1 foot section of the water snapping pictures and waving as their children screamed and played. I heard one girl ask her mom to 'come play' to which her response was 'hold on I'm posting this picture!' Some moms had their phones in what I assume is a waterproof necklace type thing that allowed them to take pictures while in the water. But the dads? The dads were right in the middle of the action, dumping water on kids heads, jumping waves in the wave pool and going down the huge water slides with their kids. 

Y'all, I get it. We moms are usually the one to make sure we get the picture. We're notorious for being the one taking the picture rather than being in it. I've read (and shared) a blog post lately where it's encouraging Dads to snap the picture. But here's the thing - if Dad is the one out there playing how is he going to get the picture? It HAS to be us, right?

We left our phones in the hotel room not even bothering to take them with us down to the pools. At times, I felt guilty for not being able to capture all the fun she was having. But you know what I was able to do? I was able to rock this 20 week pregnant belly in a bathing suit and go down slides with EK. I was able to splash around with her in the big pool and help her conquer the big slide in the toddler area. I was able to play with her, which by her request, is all she wanted.

When we got home we emptied our bags, started the laundry and sat down to relax before going back to everyday life tomorrow. I had my nose in my phone catching up on posts and articles I missed over the past few days when EK tried to get my attention....'Mommy, put down your phone. Do you want to play with me?'.....yes baby, I do.

Our kids don't care about the posts or the pictures. Chances are most likely they'll never see them or remember either. But they will remember when we played with them. They'll remember how silly we were and how we made them feel when we didn't care how we looked to others and jumped in and played with them. I'm not intending to mom shame anyone by writing this and I'm definitely not saying I have it all figured out, because I promise you I don't. I guess I'm just hoping to remind myself mostly (and anyone else who's child may not be as bossy as mine :) ) that all they really care about is our attention. 

I hope you hear far less from me from now on. If you don't feel free to remind me to 'put down your phone'

xoxo,
Rachel