Monday, February 22, 2016

Honestly, I'm Not Ignoring You

A friend and I took our dogs for a walk in the woods so I decided to leave my phone in the car where it would be safe from my accidentally dropping it in the snow, never to be found again. Plus, I just wanted to enjoy the company of my friend and our dogs, uninterrupted. When I got back to the car from our hour walk, I checked my phone. There were 7 missed calls from my son. In addition to those calls were the following texts:
Is there something wrong with your phone?
Call me back, right now
You suck at answering phones mom, seriously
Do you want me to tell you there’s an emergency? Because I’ll play that card
I’m gonna throw your phone into a porta potty
What was so important? He wanted to know where the dog was (she was with me).  My response to the missed calls and messages was this:
            You only need to leave one message or call only once. If I am available I will call you back.
 I have had told that to both of my sons at one time or another. Usually I have to remind them that I am not tied to my phone 24/7 like they are so if I don’t respond, then I will when I can. Both boys have left message after message with the same
            Answer your phone!
            Where are you?
            Why won’t you answer?
            Seriously, why even have a phone if you aren’t going to answer it?
messages as if I am sitting there looking at the screen saying “Muahahaha! They will never know I’m here refusing to answer!” The most missed calls I have received from one son was 9. 9 missed calls! No emergency. Nobody has lost a limb. It’s usually for something dumb like, “Did you order that shirt yet?”

I guess I am going to have to blame this on the generation gap. I just don’t feel the need to have my phone on me every waking second of every day. I don’t carry it around with me at work. I leave it on the counter at home and most of the time the ringer is off. I’m not innocent here. I can find myself in a panic if one of my kids doesn’t respond to my messages. But usually, I can surmise that if they aren’t responding, they are probably busy at the moment. Both of my sons carry their phones everywhere, even in the bathroom. I can hear the shower running and a phone buzzing with incoming texts. I have to wonder if the extra towel in the bathroom is for drying off wet hands to respond within seconds. I guess I can understand why they can’t understand why I’m OK with walking away from it sometimes. I like my phone and how it allows me to stay connected, but if I don’t respond right away, please understand that I’m probably busy at the moment, or I just want to unplug and enjoy the quiet, like a walk in the woods with a friend and our dogs.

            

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