Humans have only two emotional needs when all basic physical needs are met.
Belonging and significance.
We reach belonging and significance through undivided attention from other humans and making our own decisions, exercising ‘power’.
When parents nowadays – and I catch myself incredibly often – perform tasks continuously on their devices (phone, iPad, laptop, TV,…) they unconsciously – and of course unintentionally – tell their kids that the device deserves more attention than they do.
Let that sink in.
How would you feel if you constantly lost the battle for attention – which should make you feel significant – from a device?
I wouldn’t feel very significant…
Still, we do this to our kids every single day.
This post is to open our eyes, once again. We must force ourselves to conquer our deep wired addiction for devices. We owe it to our kids (the whole generation of them) to break that habit.