distraction contraption

Wanna know how moms get away
From tasks that feel unrelenting?
We sink into our cell phones
Which can feel a bit like venting

Now picture chilling out at home
Hearing a seven-year-old say
Mummy, please get off your phone
Feels like you’ve been on it all day

Heart sinks down into mama’s toes
As both eyes fill up with tears
Since setting a bad example
Is one of mama’s greatest fears

But what the child hasn’t noticed
Is that their meals are all balanced
Takes time to chop, and cook, and serve
If the kids ever dared to glance

As the kids mow down on their food
Mom may jump on her phone to check
Emails, work stuff, shoot off a text
While the whole family gives her heck

Folding laundry for the crew
Between appointments for the kids
Mom craves something quick and mindless
But not your cellphone they forbid!

Get off your phone, Silly Head!
(Even the toddler chimes in now)
And mama’s even skeptical
If kitty lets out a ‘Meow!’

Sure makes mom feel insecure
Gosh! Am I always on my phone?
Mom guilt creeps in, she worries
But in defense she holds her own

Then mama does what mamas do
A heap of dishes, takes out the trash
And with a reflective mind
Begins to notice quite a clash

Daddy too is on his phone
Although “just checking something quick”
When mom heads upstairs she sees
Both kids getting their tablet fix

Next, she recalls the appointments
Where men and women, young and old
Were glued to tiny screens
Acting like they had just struck gold

Remembers too, while on her walk,
All of the people that she passed
The only one not on her phone
Was mama, recalling her past

In the evening mom is there
Equipped with bath and books and bed
In the morning she steers the ship
Breakfast and clothes - full steam ahead

Playing, laughing, cuddles, songs
Long drawn-out chats and short ones too
Mama’s present for it all
Ingrained in all that her kids do

There are few moments that mom gets
That are alone, all to herself
So if she wants to scroll her phone
Please keep your comments to yourself