Comfortable Silence

Today I spoke with a mom who has been beta testing the Starling to measure her interaction with her 18-month-old son. During our conversation, I asked what the app experience has been like for her. Her response articulated what I’ve felt many times when using our app but never been able to put into words.

She said, “As a stay-at-home mom, there are times in my day when I fall into a comfortable silence.” In other words, her son is not causing trouble and she’s more or less on some form of autopilot. I catch myself in this state all of the time — just last night I was giving a bath to my two little girls and realized that I was going through the motions of washing them yet my mind had wandered elsewhere.

Habits and routines are great because they allow our brains to simplify the overwhelming amount of stimuli we receive during any given moment of the day. The downside is that, for someone like me, I might unintentionally autopilot away from some of the greatest moments of my kids’ early childhood. I can’t tell you how many times I have found myself preoccupied by an email or a minor item on my “to do” list and been pulled back to reality a second too late by Pam saying, “Did you just hear that?” or “Did you just see that?”

This piece was originally posted at VersaMe.com. VersaMe created the Starling the world’s first wearable engagement tracker that helps encourage and reinforce positive parenting behaviors.