Hellobee Boards

I will sometimes turn my phone to silent or even in the sleep/night mode (do not disturb). So I'm not tempted or disturbed by email and text dings.

Ugh I'm so bad about that!!! I've been trying to put it away in the afternoon until DS goes to bed. It's a struggle though.

I've been thinking about this. My daughter is 1 and so interested in my phone. Of course she would be! It's the thing she sees her mom staring at all the time. Before I got a smartphone, I was tsk-tsking people like me who looked at it all the time. But sometimes it feels like a lifeline to the outside world when you're stuck inside with a baby.

I'm thinking of putting it another room from where we are and really working on focusing on being with her. And possibly removing Facebook, which is the one that I'm always checking b/c it is updated so often.

It's actually not that hard b/c I always need to charge it, haha!

I just try to remind myself to "lead by example".

My DH is awful with his phone usage and it drives me bananas. I mention it to him ALL the time. And....I wouldn't want him to call me out on being a hypocrite, so I remind myself of this frequently lol

I try to leave it in my bedroom in the mornings, but I really do need to get better about mindlessly scrolling when she's half-playing. Sometime I'll catch her looking at me and the GUILT I feel. Ugh.

One thing that's really helped, and I should do more often, is to connect it to the Bluetooth speaker that's in our living room. That way I hear the alerts in case there's an actual call or an important text (important people have their own ringtone on my phone), but don't feel like I have to be checking it constantly.

@ValentineMommy: lol, same! Every time I nag DH about being on his phone I have to remind myself to be extra diligent!

Put the phone somewhere and I forget where I put it!

I don't quite understand the point of curbing your phone use around your children. If the concern is that someone is spending all of their time looking at their phone and not interacting with their kids, sure. But I'm a stay at home mom, and I don't want my kids to think that my entire life revolves around them and their interests and needs. I'm open with them about how sometimes we all play together, and some times I read, speak to friends and family, learn about things, relax, etc etc etc. I'm usually using my phone or laptop to do those things, although I've been trying to read more books too lately.

My preschooler is just learning to read, and I'm greatly anticipating the time when she'll be able to sit with me as we each read. But until then, I'll continue to model reasonable device usage to her. We talk a lot about how you 'can learn anything on the internet', and she frequently asks me to google things she's curious about.