Phone-addicted parents are ruining childhood

I read your News story in Issue 501 (page 9) about children getting fed up with their parents glued to their phones and it confirms something I’ve long suspected – parents are setting a terrible example by prodding and swiping all day long on these tiny screens.

My own grandchildren love technology, but they also loving running around in parks. They’ll play with an app for five minutes, then get bored and want to play age-old games like chase and hide and seek. The sort of games, in fact, that I used to play myself when I was their age. I’ve seen other children in the park get upset when their parents won’t play with them because they can’t bear to put their phones down for 30 seconds. I feel so sorry for them.

It worries me that only 10 per cent of parents realise the damage phones can have on family life. Are we raising a generation of children that will feel alienated from their parents? Heather White