Daycare To Parents: 'Get Off Your Phone!!'

Daycare chides moms for cell phone use during pickup

Parents are busy all the time, but that manic time of day when you’re picking the kids up can be particularly stressful. You’re thinking ahead to what you can make for dinner, deciding if you need to stop at the store, and trying to wrap up whatever loose ends you left back at work. This is why cell phones are awesome, because they let you send off that quick email to your boss about tomorrow’s meeting before you completely forget about it. But one Texas daycare doesn’t give a crap about your career or responsibilities outside of being a mom, and their mom-shaming sign about cell phone use proves it.

A mom posted a photo of the sign on her Facebook page (which she probably took with her cell phone, because she’s a rebel like that). The sign is a one-way ticket to Guiltville for any mom who ever worries that they’re on their phone too much around their kids. “You are picking up your child! GET OFF YOUR PHONE!!!!” the note blares. “Your child is happy to see you! Are you happy to see your child??” It goes on,”We have heard a child say ‘Mommy, mommy, mommy…’ and the parent is paying more attention to their phone than their own child. It is appalling. Get off your phone!!”

Heard you loud and clear, person who overuses exclamation points and caps lock. You think moms who dare to look at their phones at pickup suck as parents.

The post has made some major waves. It has 82,000 likes, over 8,000 comments and has been shared over a million times.

Some commenters were quick to hop on the mommy-shaming bandwagon. “Absolutely love this! Makes me crazy seeing this form of neglect,” said one. “So important to give them this attention when picked up. Lazy selfish parents don’t get it though,” said another. Here we working moms were thinking we’re doing the right thing by holding down a job to provide food and shelter for our kids, when really we’re being lazy and neglectful. Good talk.

Others see the daycare notice for what it really is — an attempt to make mothers feel bad for trying to multitask. If a daycare wants me off the phone that badly then they better also be willing to watch my children for free. My phone keeps me connected with work, and without my job the daycare bill isn’t getting paid.

And let’s not ignore the fact that it’s only moms who are called out in this sign. Surely moms aren’t the only ones picking their kids up from daycare in the evening and glancing at their phones while doing it. Yet the sign isn’t directed to parents, just mommies, because how dare we do anything with our time besides devote every second to our precious babies?

Yes, it can be annoying when someone’s on the phone while you’re trying to have an interaction with them in real life. We know that. But moms aren’t choosing the phone over their child. They’re just trying to make sure nothing falls though the cracks. Working moms face enough judgment already. We don’t need it from the daycare, too.