My personal nightmare.
My personal nightmare.

I was sitting at a cafe the other day beside some people younger than myself. They were maybe in their very early 20s. So MUCH younger than me. Before they even started eating, they pulled out their phones and took a pre-lunch photo of their group. I started thinking about when I was younger and hanging out with my friends, that wasn’t even an option. We just hung out. There was no need to document everything. At all moments. To an embarrassing degree. It struck me as kind of sad that these days many people feel a need to document everything. And then post it to their preferred social media site.

I am guilty of all of this. I TRY not to overdo it. But I love photos. Images. Especially images of my kids. I love looking back on photos of them as they grow up — to compare and contrast, to reminisce. So why am I concerned? Because I was looking back on some photos of my daughter’s second birthday party and I noticed quite a few photos of me TAKING photos. I wasn’t sitting beside her watching her beautiful little face as she blew out the candles. No. I was “capturing the moment” — and not really seeing it — by photographing it through a lens. I almost cried when I saw the photos, because I thought back on the party, and it was true. I hadn’t really been IN the moment. I had missed it.

I’m not going to ban taking photos from my life, but like with everything, I’m going to do it in moderation. I realize, like with many parenting “aha” moments, that I am the example. If I am on my phone all the time, then they will want to do the same. If I’m taking photos of them all the time, they’ll want to do the same. I complain about the loss of the art of conversation, of being present. Yet, I am a hypocrite. I resolve to put my phone away and be in the moment.

My greatest wish for my kids is for them to be comfortable in their skin, and to be able to sit back, enjoy the moment, have a conversation, and put their phones away.