TIL my 7 year old nephew asked 'why do you always look at the tiny rectangle?' and I had no answer

I was scrolling on my phone while waiting for my coffee to brew last Sunday, and my nephew Lucas just stood there watching me. He asked why I stare at a rectangle instead of looking at the kitchen or him. It hit different because he's right - I was totally ignoring the whole room around me just to see what some random person posted. Has anyone else had a kid call them out on phone habits that made you actually stop and look up?

3 comments

3 Comments

kimmurphy1mo agoMost Upvoted

...or maybe it's not even about the rectangle being more important, it's just that we've trained ourselves to reach for it without thinking. My nephew did the same thing to me a few weeks ago, asked if I was looking at something "real" when I kept scrolling past him talking about his dinosaurs. I told him I was just checking the time, but we both knew that was a lie. The worst part is I can't even remember what was on the screen that was supposedly more interesting than a kid explaining why his T-Rex has tiny arms. Makes you wonder how many moments we've traded for stuff that doesn't even matter five minutes later.

joel_clark371mo ago

Whipped my phone out of my hand like it was on fire after my niece asked if I was "checking the magic box again." Kid had me dead to rights, I was literally staring at a video of a dog riding a skateboard while she was trying to show me her macaroni art. Now I just leave the phone in the other room when she's around, feels like I'm detoxing from a bad habit.

gracec161mo ago

Last Tuesday I was at the park with my niece, 40 minutes of watching her try to climb the same slide, and I pulled out my phone to look at a recipe for dinner. She asked if the food in the little box was more important than the slide, and honestly I told her yes because that recipe was for a lemon cake I had to get right for a bake sale on Wednesday. Kids don't get that sometimes the rectangle IS more important - like when my sister texted me about picking up her kid from school early, or when I'm checking if the store has eggs on sale. If I had ignored that recipe, I would have had a burnt cake and 12 disappointed coworkers instead of a happy niece who got a slice later.