The Power of Presence: Reclaiming Family Time In The Digital Age

Growing up , I used to eat with my grandpa especially during supper. Even if I was served alone I wouldn’t want to eat until my grandpa was around. It wasn’t only because of the big meat he would give me but it was the feeling I got when I ate with my family members. On other days too, I would eat with my siblings or any other family that was around.

Now, I eat alone and this is because I’m far away from home and living alone. But even when I return back home, I am still served alone because I want to be able to watch my movie while eating. It’s grown to become an everyday thing for me and I can’t eat without a movie. Funny right?

Looking back, I really miss those days when we weren’t buried so much in our phones and we had so much time to ourselves and our family. When we used to stay back at my grandparents house, everyone in the house would come out to sit in the compound after a long day of work to catch up. We the kids had our area for our school assignment and petty playing while the grown ups had their area. It was so lively and fun because we used the night time to bond with each other.

Now, I don’t even remember the last time I spoke to some of my family members. I’m not proud of it but I guess life just happens. I have grown to see the impact of mobile phones on families. How did we all move from wanting to eat together to not wanting to eat together anymore because we want to watch movies?

Can you imagine someone can be in his or her room on his phone and his mom or dad would be calling him and they would act like they didn’t hear? I bet we’ve all done this before but if you still do it, you need to do better. We have been brainwashed to think that some petty actions of ours are right when in actual sense it isn’t. Aren’t we supposed to honor our parents? Looking at it , it seems we love our phones more than our parents.

On the other hand, parents are not left out when it comes to the issue of mobile phones in the home. Did you know that as a parent, your actions reflect on your kid’s actions. Whenever you think your kid is doing something bad, you need to check yourself because they mostly learn these habits from those they are always around.

Some parents can be on their phones forgetting they have kids at all. We usually see this especially with breastfeeding mothers. They would be busy on TikTok while their baby is crying so loud out of hunger. Why would you starve your kid all because you’re busy ok TikTok?

I don’t even want to start on the issue of those of us who send our phones with us to the washroom. I really don’t know what to say anymore because I am a victim.😂 All I can say is, we need to do better.

I’m not saying being on your mobile phone is bad, it isn’t at all because you can be earning money from your phone. What I am saying is that, there’s a time for everything especially when it has to do with family.

To some extent, I think phones should be banned in the home. For example during dinner time, morning devotion, family meetings, cleaning up time and other times we get to bond as a family. It might be difficult at first but with time, things would fall into place if it’s done rightly.

There’s actually a lot of time to be on your phone because your phone isn’t going to go anywhere. But you never know with family. Let’s learn to give our phones a break and focus more on the present.

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