iCommunicate



Don't sue me, Apple... I'm just a weary old mum missing her child.

"Hi mum, I'm home."
"Hello love.  How was your day?"
"It was ok.  Got a maths test tomorrow so need to revise."
"Ok love.  Are you hungry?"
"No thanks, Mum.  How was your day?"
"Yep, fine.  Your dad called about the photographs."
"I'll give him a ring later."

etc, etc, etc.


You know how it used to go.  They'd come in from school and we'd exchange some words of greeting and talk about our day.  We'd sit on the sofa for a little while, conversing and chatting;perhaps even having a bit of a giggle over something that had happened.  It was an essential part of the day; having spent that time apart it was our chance to regroup and reinforce our family circle with a little catch-up and bonding chat session before they run upstairs and commence with their voodoo dancing around the flames rising out of the pile of maths books in the middle of their room.  It was a good time, a special time.  Certainly, it was a time I looked forward to before settling down for the evening in the assured knowledge and understanding that communication with my child is all-important and highly valued by the whole family.

And now I sit here, heavily sighing, wondering what went wrong.  It's just 20 minutes since she burst into the living room, having dropped her cavernous and outrageously heavy backpack on the floor in the doorway.  She plopped herself on the sofa there.

"Hello love"
"Hmmmmmm"
"How was your day"
"Ok"
"Are you hungry?"
"Huh"
"Are you hungry?"
"Hmmm"
"Alex!  Are you hungry?!?"
"Emmmmm"
"Can I take it, then that you're not?"
"Huh"




Meantime, her head is lowered towards this phone in her mitt.  Twitter.  Or Facebook.  Or texts.  Or some other communications app that's taken away my daughter's ability to speak coherently and, indeed, blocked her awareness of anything that's happening around her and her phone.

Dave Allen once did a joke teenagers: "Is Ed in?"  Some of you might remember it.  It was funny as hell - it had me in tears.  Well, that's my daughter now.

If only these communications experts could sort out some app that puts her monkey music in her head instead of coming out of her speakers.  And, no, she's not heard of earphones unless she's on her school bus sitting amongst 42 other kids with headphones in their ears and totally unaware of anything around them.

I miss my daughter.

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