The park was full of children and parents the only morning Monica took her three kids there. Her husband, Todd, normally took them, but he was out of town, so Monica went instead.
She knew quite a few of the parents, mainly from parent-teacher conferences and other school events. A nod here, a smile there, and voila! they were all old friends.
The sun was bright that morning, but it was a crisp 45 degrees. The kids were doing what the kids do: laughing, playing, arguing, teasing, but generally having fun.
After getting the knowing nods and smiles from parents, Monica surveyed her surroundings. She counted 22 moms and dads with their heads down in their phones. None of them were paying attention to the children only a few feet away. An occasional yelp from one of the kids raised a head briefly, but for the most part, their eyes were glued to their phones.
“How’d we get here?” Monica thought.
She closed her purse, making sure her phone was completely out of sight and sound, and watched out over the kids, all the kids.
“I really hate being the only parent in the room,” Monica thought, “But someone has to do it.”
Thanks to Monica there is a lot of child trafficking going On these days. It’s easy to just snatch a child. I’m ashamed of those parents. I see so much child abuse come into the ER. Sadly the the world has changed with all this technology. 😓
We're thankful for the alert Monicas. And we're glad she realizes "someone has to do it."