There is a commercial on TV that drives me crazy. It’s by Xfinity. There is a little boy running around the house looking for his daddy. They are playing hide and seek. He finally finds his dad in the closet, who is watching something on his IPad. He looks up at the kid (his son!) and says “Ok now you go hide and I’ll find you.” And goes back to watching his IPad. So clearly his plan is to stay in the closet and watch his show and ignore his son for as long as he can get away with it. Somebody actually wrote that commercial and a bunch of executives thought it was a good idea. The message seems to be; Dad likes TV better than playing with his son. Isn’t that great? As an educator with a special interest in early childhood development I see how technology and screens can be an asset for kids. But they can never replace actual face to face interaction between parent and child. This commercial seems to be saying that they can.
Sad.
Ad audience of pandemic-addled parents, perhaps? But I hear you: The cheap joke at the expense of actual family bonding feels like a tonal misstep.
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Not something I would not want to push…screen time over face to face interaction.
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Definitely not a great ad. As a parent who has been with my child 24/7 for the last one year and eight days, I certainly see the appeal of an escape. But I also see my sad 10 year old say, “I want to see my friends NOT ON A SCREEN.” Nothing beats the actual face to face time, even if you have to stand six feet away from each other. And if Mom and Dad are the only ones that you can see, then you deserve some personal interaction with them too.
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