Blackberry Orphans

I recently read an interesting article and the author named the story as "Blackberry Orphans". The spreading prevalence of Blackberry has made parents to be glued to their email so much that they are not spending time playing with their kids. The kids are starting to feel like orphans. (For ladies outside the US, blackberry is a cellphone type device that is mainly used for sending and receiving email).

Even though many of us don't have blackberry, we spend inordinate amount of time on the phone or on the internet to the extent that our kids might feel neglected. Do you feel guilty of that? I certainly do? What are some practical rules that we can put in place to avoid it?

Bharthi

yes Barthi.I have felt it too. Suddenly I will feel guilty and finish my surfing fast and go play with my son...My tip is : atleast whenever it strikes you,spend time immediately.If we plan for future it might slip.
Whenever I do cooking or veg cutting or cleaning or washing my son (toddler about to be 3) will join me happily.We both will have fun in doing all of these. But If he sees me sit in the computer,he will groan. He will become cranky.He wants me to play with him always.Sometimes I also will feel selfpity that I am not able to spend time to be on my own,doing things that interest me.
I think we should have a balance of everything we do.Set priorities. As you say nowadays even some moms at home are tiedup so much that we are not able to spend quality time with our kids.Especially when browsing we have full concentration on the screen . But we will be careful that our kid is playing safe.We have to show the same carefulness in satisfying 'their need for our time' & also 'our need for our time'.
What u ppl feel?