Don’t want to be the mum on her phone ignoring her children

THERE I was telling (even if I do say so myself) a funny story to a friend.

Except she hadn’t looked at me for almost the duration of said tale – and was instead focusing on her phone. So I stopped talking. Eventually – we’re talking a good five seconds of silence – she looked up quizzically and said “Huh?”; then “Oh right, sorry, sorry, just texting back about the thingy tonight.”

I asked her if it could wait the two minutes it would take to tell my story and it dawned on her – yes, it could.

So there we had it – a magical two moments of human interaction that resulted in a shared belly laugh.

Scientists reckon we use our phones so much it’s resulting in an evolutional stoop of our shoulders.

I reckon we’re using them so much we’re missing out on life.

A woman has written a book about gadget addiction and how to “digitally detox” after realising her newborn baby was looking at her and smiling for the first time – and she was focused on her phone. Is that not tragic? Hands up, I’ve had my moments. I’ve probably stopped living in the moment to see how many “likes” a picture I’ve posted has got (yes, I am aware saying these words aloud makes me sound like a loser) – but I don’t want to be that person.

The person who collects their kid from school, only for the first thing for your pride and joy to see is mummy reading an email on her phone.

I’ve started leaving my phone on a shelf when I come home so I can inhabit the same world as my children when I’m with them.

Granted, this has resulted in missed urgent emails about travel arrangements for filming and a producer asking me to call them straight away.

But I got to wipe bottoms, sing the “poo poo song” (we made it up) and answer the most pressing question of the day: “Why can’t we ride on daddy cows?”

So, you know, winning all the way.