Adventures In Motherhood

We pressed delete on endless scrolling this summer and now the Surgeon General has our back.  Instagram, Tik Tok, Reddit, YouTube, endlessly scrolling, his head hunched over staring at his Iphone screen, this was not the 'epic' summer I wanted for my 17-year-old son! Having purchased his own Iphone for his 13th birthday during the pandemic, our son was addicted to the dopamine hits his technology promised without fail.  As parents, we had tried to ' wait til 8th ' with our third child as we had our older two, though the pandemic lockdown just before his April birthday softened our stance. We hoped the Iphone would provide a virtual social media lifeline to his friends that his Tracfone flip phone couldn't replicate. Fast forward four years and we had a cell phone junkie with a Pavlovian response when his Iphone lit up.  Averaging 200+ pickups a day, it pained me to see my son reach into his pocket for his Iphone, at the risk of boredom, walking from the car to the b...

I put my foot down. My good foot that is, on principal that no mother should be left to languish incapacitated in her bedroom from sun up to sundown. Suffering pain from both MCL and complete ACL tears following a skiing accident, as if birthing four children wasn't enough, my life consists of RICE, (rest, ice, compression and elevation), and my en suite bedroom my natural new habitat. The days of 'alone time' sounding dreamy are not gone; they are merely on hold as the risk/reward of hurling myself down a flight of stairs for a Grub Hub delivery is questionable insanity. Covid-quarantine has apparently rendered my family especially deaf to my pleas for help. Mainly confined to my bedroom for my own sanity, the five other family members are unable to hear my cries for help with headsets affixed to their skulls diligently 'working' online.  What child responds quickly to a mother's call? I've gone through all their names, from "Gavin please come, are you...