Parental Pet Peeves

Twirling hair, nail biting, nose picking...these are all things that kids do that can really push a mother's buttons. Out of those three, twirling hair is enemy number one on my list. My older daughter does it and it drives me insane in the membrane. It's like there is a magnet pulling her little finger to her head. No matter how many times I tell her to stop, she keeps on doing it. I can't stand it. I've told her she's going to go bald if she continues. She doesn't care. I've threatened to cut off all her hair. She doesn't care because she knows I would never do it. I'm trying to come to grips with the fact that this is something she is just going to have to out grow. Hopefully, before she really does go bald!

While there are things that kids do that drive me nuts, they are kids, so I can give them a little bit of a free pass. Now, there are some things that other parents do that really get under my skin. There is no free pass here. Here's the biggie...are you ready? Wait, please put down your phone first so I can really have your attention. Yep, that's it. Parents who are too busy on their phones to notice their children are flagging them down like they are trying to hail a cab in Midtown Manhattan.

I see this every week at my daughter's soccer games. Parents are so technologically invested in their phones that they don't even notice what their kid is doing on the field. Drives. Me. Nuts. Just last week, I saw a guy with his head down for half an hour. When he picked his head up to finally notice his kid, the little guy looked was looking around like he was going to pick daisies. He could care less about playing. The Dad yelled at him to pay attention. I wanted to yell back, "You moron, he probably doesn't care because he sees you don't care." Duh! It doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

When I was going growing up (oh God I sound like my mother!) we never had to compete with technology for our parents' attention. I think this is sad side effect of just how stupid our smart phones have made us. Does anyone out there agree?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no parental angel. I've caught myself with phone and Facebook in hand plenty of times before. I know how addictive and stupid all those apps can become. But, that's when I log off and log on to what's in front of me. Status Update: Being 100% mommy now!  I think if we can unplug more often we would really appreciate our kids before they become old enough to unfriend us on Facebook and tweet about us under #uncoolparents. What do you think?