The Instagram Addict

My 14 yo daughter has noticed what I do in my office calls. Unlike my wife, I am usually on group calls, not one-on-one calls. This means that the parts relevant to me in the call can vary wildly. Between hardly needed to needed periodically to being the presenter. Accordingly, how much attention I pay during those calls varies wildly. As you might have guessed, my daughter picked only the data points that made me look inattentive or worse.

 

Let me elaborate on the “or worse” part. Sometimes, a question will be sprung at me in the middle of a call and I would not even have heard the question! Upon which, I follow the time-tested practice of blaming it on bad network connection, and ask them to repeat the question. Such instances became Exhibit A for the prosecution daughter.

 

At other times, I have been on my phone during calls, scrolling through various social media. Not only did these become Exhibit B, but they also got me branded (with exaggerated finger wagging and sighs) as an Instagram addict!

~~

 

For some reason, my daughter’s school won’t have the kids write notes in class. Instead, they put the notes on the Net and ask the kids to copy them to the notebook at home. Some days, the amount to be copied can be too much. Feeling sorry for her + considering the whole activity pointless + more important for her to learn something in that time, we’ve offered to write the notes for her.

 

In earlier classes, my daughter worried about the handwriting discrepancy. But now, her teachers don’t care. Since my wife’s writing is a lot better than mine, my daughter prefers that she write, not me. But once in a while, it falls on me. Boy, has it been ages since I wrote with a pen or pencil. My hand ached after just 2 answers. So I took a break. Right on cue, the inspector daughter walked by and pointed out I was going too slow and that she wrote more in half the time. Without breaks. For 9 continuous periods. Every single day.

 

The final insult? She took my phone and kept it at the other end of the table. “No more phone until you’ve finished writing the notes, you Instagram addict”, she added for good measure.

 

Ok, maybe she’s not entirely wrong in calling me that.

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