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frankbreetz | 1 year ago

Maybe they were taking a day off work made only possible by being available.

Maybe they were reading a book.

Maybe they were planning dinners for the week.

Maybe they were scheduling a play date for their kids.

We do everything on our phones.

I think 46% of parents being distracted sometimes by any of those things is not at all problematic. Maybe kids can learn to wait 2 minutes.

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jjulius|1 year ago

>Maybe they were taking a day off work made only possible by being available.

That's not a day off work, then.

>I think 46% of parents being distracted sometimes by any of those things is not at all problematic. Maybe kids can learn to wait 2 minutes.

If you read the article and not just the HN quote, the full sentence is, "teens who say their parent is distracted by their phone while having a conversation with them." This isn't a child approaching their parent and the waiting for them to stop reading or working on a grocery list before they start chatting, this is a parent losing focus in the middle of a conversation because of whatever is on their screen.

I think we're all pretty aware, and have seen, this behavior firsthand and how distracted people are by their phones in such a scenario. You don't stop listening to your kid mid-convo just to read a sentence in a book, do you? No, you take that moment (the "two minutes" you alluded to) to come to a nice spot to pause and then give them your attention. Doesn't sound like that's what's happening here.

>We do everything on our phones.

We don't have to.

frankbreetz|1 year ago

>We don't have to.

I don't understand this. Should I carry around a backpack with a music player, several book, video camera, and planner?

Would that be a better situation, then periodically looking at my phone?