Surprisingly, the New York Times has not picked up on this yet, but it seems that I and thousands of others are iPhone moms. What does this mean? That we use our phones for email, scheduling, organizing, distracting our ADD-afflicted toddlers, and, yes, as a tool for neglect. Our moms' generation used soap operas to drown out the mundane and/or the whining. We use cool technology.
So how long before the term "iPhone mom" replaces "green" as the new annoying classifier?
On the other hand, I was thinking about what this says about me and my cohort. Not too long ago we had soccer moms. They came to be known as this because they drove minivans or SUVs to take their kids to soccer games. They were defined by what they were doing for their children and advertisers/politicians/Jay Leno were all over it - selling them useless toys, tools, and ideas, and cracking jokes at their child-obsessed expense. That's what makes this iPhone mom thing kind of interesting. We're being defined not by what we do for our kids but for what we do for ourselves - in some ways the family but mostly ourselves - even as we are still being defined as moms. Does this mean we are more selfish than past generations? Or do new national obsessions ultimately lead to new ways of categorizing consumers, and I'm just wasting time giving this one any legitimacy?
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It's all about survival. I think we overestimate the soccer mom's obsession with her kids. I went to a game with a friend to watch her son play, and I had an epiphany. You don't go to watch your kids play, you go because you get to hang out with other adults while your kids are occupied with something else and at a safe distance. It was such a social event that I forgot we were there to watch her son. I'm guilty of the same. It's a little embarrassing when the Wiggleworms teacher has to ask you to stop chatting and sing along, but I'm pretty sure that's why I keep going week after week. And now that I have a preschooler, it's the same thing. Drop off the kids and then -- yay! -- talk to other adults. And playdates? My neighbor came over with her kids the other day, and pulled a bottle of wine out of her diaper bag. "Iphone mom" might be the newest label, but I'm not sure it's any different than being a soccer mom or anything else. We need something, anything, to save us from ourselves and our kids day after day after day after day....
ReplyDeleteMari, I want to meet your neighbor. I've been wanting to do that for ages but I never had the balls.
ReplyDelete