We look at our phones too much too
It is difficult to ask children to have a healthy relationship with screens if our own phone is present in every pause, conversation, and meal.
This is not about pretending adults and children have the same responsibilities. It is about making our priorities visible through what we do.
Short answer
Choose specific moments in which your attention is protected from the phone and make your own use more intentional.
What may be happening
Phones mix work, messages, entertainment, logistics, and habit in one device. That makes adult use hard to compare with a child's screen time, but it can still interrupt connection.
Children notice when they repeatedly have to compete with a screen for our attention.
What you can do
Identify a few moments that matter: meals, the first minutes after school, bedtime, or a conversation.
Put the phone physically away when you want to be fully present. If you need to use it for something important, saying what you are doing can make the situation more understandable:
“I'm answering a work message, then I'm putting the phone away.”
What to avoid
Avoid demanding a standard from children that is visibly contradicted by adult behaviour without ever acknowledging the difference.
Perfection is not the goal. Awareness and repair matter too.
Tell Kora when your phone most gets in the way of the kind of parent you want to be. A small change in one repeated moment can matter more than a vague promise to use it less.
