Sunday breakfast

So glad that Blogger is up and running again. I was having withdrawal symptoms. Scary how fast I can get addicted to things.

Today, I've got a wee rant.

My husband and I went out to the local White Spot for breakfast. It's something we like to do fairly often. Usually there's a mix of young families, couples and older folk who get up and going early.

Seated at the table across from us was a couple with their son of perhaps nine. Nothing unusual about that. Dad was showing some travel brochures and he was talking about vacationing at Puerto Vallarta. Okay. But what got my attention was the behaviour of the mother.

She was on her cell phone for the entire time - or at least for the time we were there. She was still on it when we paid our bill and left. She put the phone down briefly to order her meal, then continued talking after the waitress left. When her meal arrived, she just shifted it to her left hand so she could eat with the right. Was it business? I don't think so - it sounded like 'girl' talk to me. I wanted to get up and rip that thing out of her hand.

Presumably, she went out for Sunday breakfast to spend time with her family. Well, as far as they were concerned, she might as well have stayed home. What does her behaviour say to her son? - Mommy would rather be on the phone talking to a friend than talking to you and dad. - Maybe this was her idea of quality time. She just has a different definition of quality. It was very sad.

So why should it bother me?

I don't like to see parents wilfully neglect their children. I've seen the negative results. I feel that if you make the conscious decision to have children, there are certain responsibilities that go along with that choice. One of those is to be present - not just in the physical sense, but the emotional one as well. I know it's not easy being a parent. It's physically and emotionally draining - but it can be amazingly rewarding too if you put some effort into it.

Maybe it's where I live. I see families and children with all the material goodies, but no sense of connection to each other. The kids are dropped off and picked up at scores of activities; they go home to X-Boxes, computers and surround sound TV; the parents work, come home tired and impatient. More often than not, everyone has dinner separately. When they do get a chance for an outing together, mom sits with a cell phone glued to her ear! As I said, it's sad.