Daycare asks Parents to Get off your phone!

Today I found this article on yahoo about a Daycare who posted on their doors a notice telling parents to put down your phone when picking up your child.   Let me give this center a round of applause.  Why? Because I speak this as a mother and a teacher who once worked in Daycare.  As a daycare teacher this notice was more likely for those parents who constantly walk into the building every single day talking on their phone. It wasn't for the ones who every now and again may do this, but the ones who EVERY DAY Morning and Evening dropping off or picking up have that phone glued to their ear.

Could the notice have been said another way? Yes, it could have. The woman who posted the notice that day constantly saw the same behavior with her parents and it drove her crazy, and for her enough was enough, and out of her passion this is what she wrote.  Parents I'm sure did take offense to it, but if the shoe didn't fit why get offended.  

I feel like this...if the call is that important and you can't get off your phone at the moment then sit in your car or stand outside the the daycare doors until you finish your phone call because your child has just been in someone's else's care all day while you were away at work making money to financially support your household.  All your child knows in that moment right then and there is "my mommy is here and I get to go home and spend time with her."   So, they may have created a project they want to show you right then and there before they grab there coat because it was the best project they did and they are so proud of what they created they need to show it off to you like RIGHT NOW.   Your child can can care less about that phone call, they just want your undivided attention so they can tell you what they did, and how much they miss the hell of not seeing until now.

They make like there teacher's because they make them feel safe and they have fun while they are there, but when they see a parents face they drop everything like a microphone on a stage because they just served somebody and now they're leaving the building.  They are happy to see your presence and it means the world to them.  So, if you have that very important phone call that will call your attention more so then your child trying to get your attention to show you  an awesome project they created, or to give you a hug that says I miss you, then take finish that call in the car or stand outside the daycare until you are done.  This is my position.

Below I have left a link to the article as well as posting the article below.

Daycare asks Parents to Get Off Your Phone!

A sign posted at a child’s daycare has touched a nerve as it raises a difficult question: When should parents put down their phones? Or, perhaps it’s gone viral because of the deeper question beneath that one: Who has the right to make any kind of request of parents?

“You are picking up your child! Get off your phone!!!!” reads the sign, posted by parent Juliana Farris Mazurkewicz last Friday. “Your child is happy to see you! Are you happy to see your child?? We have seen children trying to hand their parents their work they completed and the parent is on the phone. We have heard a child say ‘Mommy, mommy, mommy…’ and the parent is paying more attention to their phone than their own child. It is appalling. Get off your phone!!”

 

Posted at the daycare today!

Posted by Juliana Farris Mazurkewicz on Friday, January 27, 2017

As of this writing, the post has received more than 1,600 comments and 320,000 shares. Clearly, people have some thoughts about the matter. On the one hand, there are many who agree:

“Yes. So, so, so sad that the person who they are talking to is more important than their child,” wrote Pat Smart.

“Children grow up so quickly. Make the most of when they are little,” Kim Wilkes said.

“So disgusting that a parent needs to be told to pay attention to their child!” Lynn Marshall commented.

A few agreed while also questioning the harsh manner in which the sign was worded. “I like this a lot, however, I think it would be nice to add a ‘please’ to it,” said Lois Poseno.

Then there was the mind your own business camp.

“Maybe it’s work related,” suggested Eboni Shareece McGill. “I mean they do have to pay for their kids to go to your damn daycare. Maybe it’s family related. Someone tried this at my school when my mom came to pick me up. She cursed them out because they were so in her business that they didn’t know to check to see if everything was okay with my grandpa who was sick in the hospital.”

“Maybe [don’t] judge someone’s whole life from the two minutes a day you see them at pick-up,” Michelle Potter wrote. “You don’t know who they’re talking to or what they’re dealing with. If I’m out of the house and on the phone, 99% of the time I’m talking to one of my kids. Should I not answer their call because YOU might judge me? Yeah, that’s going to happen. Right after I don’t breastfeed my infant because you’d prefer she had a bottle.”

Setting aside the notion of whether daycare providers should be making this judgment, there is certainly a case to be made that eventually, parents should probably put down their phones. A survey of 6,000 children from eight different countries found that 54 percent thought their parents spent too much time on their phones, and 32 percent felt unimportant when their parents were distracted by the devices. Another study in Boston found that caregivers who were absorbed with their phones reacted more harshly to misbehaving children. Cutting back on phone time is easier said than done, however. Researchers from the University of Washington who observed parents in Seattle playgrounds found that 44 percent of them felt that they should restrict their phone use while watching their kids but felt unable to do so.

Regardless of how people respond to this sign, it’s quickly become eligible for the annals of preschool parent outrage — along with the likes of the scary-pants complaint, “non-working parent” discrimination, and the suggestion that a mother to use less coconut oil in her daughter’s hair.