Living life on the edge-of a tectonic plate

My name is Maria and I am an iphone addict. Yes, there is a reason this is my DP on FB. (lingo learned from my daughter)

I love multi-tasking, checking my emails, texting my daughter, checking in on Facebook and researching some inane fact on the internet, whilst having a drink with friends.  But when my son said to me, “you’re always on your iphone”,  it hit me as if he’d said, “you always miss the parent-teacher conferences” (which, in fact, I did, once) So, I started feeling guilty immediately.  Is that what my friends thought as well?  Was my multi-tasking affecting my work?  my friends? my family?  If so, then I had to admit I had a problem and that I was an iphone addict.

I started to analyze my behavior.  What did it mean, and who could I blame for it?  I realized that by doing ten things at once I may not be fully “doing” any of them.  And  like every working mom has felt at one time, I was doing lots of things but I was not doing ANY thing fully. (I’m not getting drawn into the working-mom-stay-at-home- mom ubiquitous dilemma, been there, done both and there’s no solution).  But I thought perhaps, I was not IN THE MOMENT.  This was my OPRAH epiphany.  Be in the moment.  I get it!

The same day I saw a “friend’s friend’s picture on FB about a treat she had made for her son’s class.  It was a photo of  mini-“sliders”, placed carefully in plastic baskets with red gingham paper.  But to add insult to injury the sliders were actually cupcakes with chocolate sprinkles on top of brownies and butter cream icing that looked like cheese slices!  And the baskets were bought the summer before in the U.S.!  This kind of parenting is so beyond my skill set it is like, quantum physics, and using the word entropy on a regular basis.  It is like Christmas shopping at a craft sale in July and sending home thank-you cards FROM the birthday party.  I don’t get it.

So, in my self-improvement mindset, I decided I will make an attempt to be a little more IN the moment from now on.  I will not PANIC when I do not have my iphone next to me.  I will not wake-up in the middle of the night and check my emails (o.k.  I will explain this one, being an insomniac and having a daughter in a different time zone gives me a little leeway)

So, I will make an effort…umm, I just alt-tabbed my Facebook while I was writing that…

I will not fast-forward my yoga DVD because it’s “too slow paced”.

And I’ll update you in a week to let you know how I’ve done and if life is better in the fast lane.