Every year from Christmas to early January, I have little to do with my phone, and certainly nothing to do with work. Over the few days of Christmas itself, I have nothing to do with my phone at all. It feels so incongruent to me to be near it. In fact generally I dislike my phone. I like nothing more than to leave it behind when I go out (once to my misfortune as I got a flat tire, but I made it through with the help of a friendly passer by!). The more I connect to nature through my garden and through foraging, the more of a distaste I have for distraction through being online. That deals with my phone though, what about work?

I was replying to a message Gus left me, and the realisation came to me that we have moved from the paradigm of ‘controlling’ our children (not good!), to being scared by-standers in their lives! We fear being the overbearing parents of the generations before, which many of us rightly have trauma associated with, on top of societal pressure to pander to our children's every whim. We have therefore moved from one extreme to another, and it has led us to being a by-stander in our child's journey through developing their beliefs and values.