Life Guard

Through the beauty of this interlinking we call "The Net", I stumbled across this photo from Frank Uyttenhoven and was instantly reminded of a story....


Back in circa 1999 and the era of "The Bubble" and Web 1.0... I was home one evening and asked, or volunteered, "to give our daughter Chloe a 'tub'". She was very young at the time, probably around 3 years old and I believe Janet was likely pregnant with Coco. So in the midst of the fast paced "Bubble 1.0" era I went about the duties of filling the tub with warm water, etc... then helped Chloe get situated with all the necessary tub-toys... at which point the gentle buzz of my mistress, the blackberry, gently caressed my hip. Like every good follower of Pavlov, I immediately reached for the device like a gunslinger of the wild west and launched straight into the awaiting message... Scrolling and indenting and scrolling some more, then tap tap tapping away with gargantuan thumbs atop a keyboard befitting a Barbie, I diligently replied to the incoming request. Likely I cc'd someone else on the response and forwarded a copy for other reasons...all the basic stuff. Then in the spirit of "web time", a term made popular in the Web 1.0 world as a chronological analogy to canine years, I'm sure I saw a response or two come back into which I jumped into the infinite loop....

The cycle was briefly interrupted when Chloe asked if she could get out of the tub to which I murmured something like "sure honey, here's a towel" while extending my left arm to raise the towel from the hook and lower it slightly to the right in order to place it in Chloe's small out stretched arms. Proud of herself she scooted into see mommy and get a quick snuggle before the start of the "Jammy Dance" of picking out which PJ's to wear that night. The zone of the Blackberry was pierced when I heard Janet inquisitively ask while stroking Chloe's dry head..."Did you wash your hair?" Fair question of a 7 or 10 year old, but somewhat of a loaded question of a 3year old who was being "given a tub" by her father...

I quickly dropped my Blackberry and rushed into retrieve Chloe. Needless to say not a drop of water had left the tub because I certainly had not begun to release the drain or prepare a toothbrush...

This was a bit of a wake up call about technology, how we use it and our dependencies or addictions and/or plane distractions. As I reflected on this story and recounted it to other young parents in my social circle, I used the analogy that in that instance, I was nothing more than a lifeguard. Not a bad thing, but a missed opportunity to spend 1:1 time with Chloe...

So, when I came across this photo, I was immediately reminded of that event with Chloe and look back thinking that technology still consumes more than it's share of my time and attention and how proud of both of my daughters I truly am. Creatures of habit...