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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2026at the park, at least.<\/span><\/p>\n With the weather getting nicer (read: not balls sticking to your leg hot anymore), I\u2019ve really wanted to capitalize and let my kids play outside more, before it starts getting to be too chilly for outdoor play.\u00a0 That said, usually on weekends where there\u2019s really nothing on the agenda, I\u2019ll take my kids to one of the numerous parks in my area where they can run around and play on a playground, burn some energy, and interact with other kids.<\/span><\/p>\n It’s not at all surprising, but it\u2019s still a little disappointing for me to see, but whenever we go to most any park, it\u2019s almost always the same scene; kids running around and being kids, and their parents usually posted up on a park bench, aimlessly looking at their phones.<\/span><\/p>\n Obviously I get it, and sometimes there\u2019s little else I\u2019d rather be doing than doing the same thing and indulging in mindless content and memes and games as opposed to having to be on in dad-mode as if I\u2019m not already in dad-mode for the other 90% of my life when I\u2019m not working.\u00a0 And I\u2019d be lying if I said that I didn\u2019t occasionally look at my phone myself when at the park with my kids, or if I\u2019m lucky enough to be there with another trusted adult, indulging a little bit myself.<\/span><\/p>\n However the thing is that my phone is absolutely not the primary thing I\u2019m paying attention to while at the park at my kids, because my kids are what I\u2019m paying the most attention to while at the park.\u00a0 Making sure they stay safe, making sure they\u2019re getting along well with other kids or each other, and making sure nobody else\u2019s little shits are bullying my kids.\u00a0 And of course, I\u2019ll play with my kids as well, whether they want me to chase them and play tag, push them on swings, or if they want my assistance at doing some of the things that they\u2019re apprehensive about, like monkey bars, rope bridges, or climbing higher things.<\/span><\/p>\n Not that any of my fellow parents who have resigned themselves to phone zombie status would even notice, but it\u2019s like I kind of make a point to be more active, more present and more focused on my children, because even at 5 and 4 years old, I already feel like time has zipped by, my kids are enormous, and the next time I blink, they\u2019ll be teenagers too cool to be with their parents, and will outwardly resent and hate everything I do despite remembering they still love me.\u00a0 I love watching their faces when they come down a slide, or hearing their laughter when they\u2019re playing with each other or other kids, because I know this isn\u2019t forever.<\/span><\/p>\n And I\u2019ll even indulge other parents\u2019 kids, if they\u2019re playing with mine, and I\u2019m typically happy to engage them in tag, or push them on swings or see-saws or merry-go-rounds.\u00a0 Occasionally I\u2019ll look up to see if other parents are cool with such, only to see them face-buried in their phones, completely checked out and handed off, which I find to be kind of sad.<\/span><\/p>\n Yeah, this does make me feel like I have a right to say that I\u2019m a better parent than those who don\u2019t do close to what I do, and are completely at peace with handing their kids off to the park so they can get some phone time in.\u00a0 Your kids will be grown in the blink of an eye too, and if you don\u2019t have any memories of casually playing outside with your own kids, then that\u2019s your regret to hold and lament about, not mine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I typically save my phone time to when we\u2019re at home, and I\u2019m letting my kids get some screen time in; this is usually the time in which I indulge in my phone, while they\u2019re watching Little Einsteins<\/em> or Superkitties<\/em> for the 250th<\/sup> time.\u00a0 But when I\u2019m outside with my kids, it\u2019s important to me to be vigilant and be active and be participating in the things that they\u2019re doing, and yes I do judge all the other parents who don\u2019t and feel bad for the disingenuous memories that they\u2019ll have for the future where they won\u2019t be able to remember the sheer jubilation or excitement on their kids\u2019 faces when they\u2019re having fun, because they didn\u2019t see them.<\/span><\/p>\n It’s never too late to become better.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2026at the park, at least. With the weather getting nicer (read: not balls sticking to your leg hot anymore), I\u2019ve really wanted to capitalize and let my kids play outside more, before it starts getting to be too chilly for outdoor play.\u00a0 That said, usually on weekends where there\u2019s really nothing on the agenda, I\u2019ll … Continue reading Dad Brog (#156): I am a better parent than you<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,193,192,83,25,69],"class_list":["post-50913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-comparison","tag-dad","tag-kids","tag-observations","tag-technology","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50915,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50913\/revisions\/50915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}