Other Distractions

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This post is part of a series of 31 Day to Cultivating Heart Connections with Your Child as part of the 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes Challenge.

Distractions abound.

In our fast-paced, phone dinging, activity-oriented world—hundreds of sights, sounds, to-dos, and all those other things beg for our attention every day. Wherever we turn, something or other else is vying for our 1,440 minutes each day.

Maybe it’s volunteering for all the volunteer positions which need filling.

Maybe it’s a hobby.

Maybe it’s television or Netflix.

Maybe it’s an app on your phone.

Chances are when you read that first sentence—distractions abound—your mind jumped to that thing which most often distraction you.

For me, I recognized a few weeks ago that I had been spending far too many of my minutes on Facebook. When I sat down to nurse the baby, my phone came with me and instead of looking into his eyes, I simply scrolled the newsfeed. When I went to the bathroom, my phone accompanied me. After every phone call. Before bed. While “watching” the kids play.

Now, I love Facebook for easy sharing with friends and for connecting with all of you wonderful readers. But I had to be honest, Facebook had become a distraction instead of a tool. Instead of it being a tool to reach out to others, it had become a habit to pacify myself anytime I had a few moments of waiting. And frankly, I was letting Facebook steal too many of those 1,440 minutes.

Consequently, when I had to get a new phone this week, I’ve avoided putting the Facebook app on it. I’m not abandoning Facebook completely, just putting boundaries on it so that I am using it as a tool instead of it sucking away my precious minutes.

Maybe yours isn’t Facebook, but once you recognize it, what are you going to do to protect your 1,440 minutes?

If we aren’t investing adequate focused attention without distractions, we won’t truly cultivate deep heart connections, we will only be going through the motions.

In order to cultivate heart connections with our children, we must choose carefully where we spend those 1,440 minutes and make sure we are setting time aside for them free from the other distractions that would make them question their importance to us.

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