Domestic Diversions

Your baby or your phone: Who most deserves your attention?

The State Bar of Michigan’s Blog highlighted The Atlantic WordPlay post “Papa Don’t Text: The Perils of Distracted Parenting.” The author discovered parents pushing strollers and interacting with their phones instead of their children.

Deborah Fallows writes (excerpt):
These studies suggest that social interaction is important to early language learning. Of course, everyone learns to talk. But how ironic is it that, in this era when child-rearing is the focus of unprecedented imagination, invention, sophistication, and expense, something as simple and pleasurable as conversing with our children can be overlooked? As Dimitri Christakis, one of the authors of the Pediatrics paper, put it to me, “You can only do one thing at a time: talk to the baby or talk on the phone.”

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