Yet more new neighbours. First the triplets were born, and they were followed by twins. They often all play together. They were racing towards me in the second picture, but by the time the camera had actually clicked, they had turned and were off in the opposite direction! Very difficult to get 5 active lambs in the one picture, so I gave up.

Jj is for Jottings 11: Adult Attention Span, Part 2.
In Part 1 we talked about the reduced attention span caused by the devices people use to try and stay connected, and of course all of that applies to people of ages who would have smartphones, not to young children. However it does apply to young children, because they can suffer from lack of attention from the adults around them in all the ways mentioned previously. Let me elaborate:
Think of a time when you had a conversation with somebody and you had their complete attention, regardless of any potential distractions that may be going on around you. How does that make you feel? Now think of a time when you are in a conversation during which the other person pulls out their phone and glances at it (that drives me nuts – it’s so rude) or their eyes are wandering around the room, or they’re obviously tuning in to some sound outside the conversation. How does that make you feel? It doesn’t make you feel valued, does it?
When I was a child I had a school friend whose mother was very inclined to cut people off in a conversation. It didn’t make me feel good when it happened to me. But there was one incident which really impressed itself on my memory, and which may account for why I am not good at closing interactions to this day. My friend’s cousin was telling us something, and right in the middle of a sentence, the friend’s mother cut across her, saying briskly, “We’ve had enough of that now.” I felt so sorry for her and I think I made a decision then to try to never do that to anyone. When you consider that it is well-accepted that children’s most important formative years are 0-7 years old, being made to feel small and undervalued in that time is not exactly going to set them up for a lifetime of success and happiness.
So – the reduced attention span of the adults bounces back on the children indirectly in terms of their self-esteem, but also directly because the time that adults are spending “connecting” with their friends often robs the children of language-enriching conversation time, reading time – either reading to parents to practise their skills or being read to – and parent-child playtime.