⚠️WARNING⚠️
This was NOT created for social-sharing (Disclaimer for this post is at the bottom)
But it makes sense to share it anyway because so many of us are type-A driven, hyper focused, driven individuals who are always working to improve, to become a little better tomorrow than we are today.
And in our hyper focused congested lives, how many of us have kids?
I do. My wife and I have two boys, 16 & 13.
It’s so easy to be busy as dad and miss those emotional meaningful connections with my boys.
A couple of summers ago, I had several speaking events day after day within a 10 day range.
At the end of the 10 days, we snuck away to the beach for a long weekend.
Day 1 at the beach and we noticed how the boys were lethargic and glued to their phones.
After an inquiry and checking their battery usage, we discovered that our kids had spent over 80 hours each on their phones within that 10 day range.
One of our boys spent 24 hours on Snapchat, alone. 24 hours of a 10 day period is 10% of his life (more if you figure his waking hours) on social media.
I discovered that my kids were starving for social interaction, interaction that I was for large part supposed to be giving as dad.
Only thing was, I was too busy thinking about the next thing I was scheduled to do instead of practicing presence with my boys.
Check Your Battery is a discussion starter that I created to see how we’re spending our time.
Founder of Chick-fil-A, Truett Cathy, once said, “Food is essential to life, therefore, make it good.
Couple that with Benjamin Franklin who asked the question, “Do you love life? Then do not squander your time, for that is the substance that life if made of (loosely quoted).”
Put Cathy and Franklin together and you have a recipe for the Good Life.
Life is an amazingly beautiful thing which we all have the opportunity of enjoying. I want to spend my time in such a way as to nourish and cherish the good along the way.
For those of us who are parents, we get to help shape the lives of our kids.
Mom, Dad ~ what a valuable thing we can do, by teaching and demonstrating to our kids that we value them by investing our greatest asset – TIME – into our relationship with those under our roofs.
With Hope!
John
My disclaimer to this post:
I LOVE technology!!!! And I believe it’s here to stay. I’m not a guy who thinks we should pull phones out of kids’ hands or even limit their time interacting with tech. However, while I think iPhones and broadband data connections are one of the most substantial innovations of human history, I also believe that nothing can replicate the endorphin rush when my 13 year old tells me a funny thing that happened at school or my 6’3″ 260lb 16 year old reaches in for a hug with his dad, me. Food for thought.
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