New Mum Utters “Good Girl” For 50th Time Today While Scrolling Behind Baby’s Back

TRACEY BENDINGER | Society | Contact

Local mother Jazz Standley had visions of coffee dates, aperols and park walks while on maternity leave with her first born baby, Sophie. However, as she sits on a foam play mat in her two-bedroom Betoota Sounds apartment a more sobering scenario is playing out.

“Good girl” she says mindlessly to her baby as she scrolls through social media behind her baby’s back.

“Really? That’s interesting..” she followed, after her baby let out a cute little babble.

When asked why she doesn’t just scroll in front of the baby, Jazz said it was because didn’t want the baby to see her on her phone.

“TikTok says it can harm a baby’s development if they see you on your phone all the time”

When pressed on what TikTok says about the harm doom scrolling can have on an adult’s cognitive state, Jazz seemed lost to the irony.

“Oh yeah, it’s so bad.” she said almost as mindlessly as she says “good girl”.

“But what am I supposed to do? Just sit there and actually be engaged with my baby for 10 hours a day?”

“I haven’t focussed on anything except my phone for 10 hours straight since I did my HSC 20 years ago.”

It’s still too early to see the effects social media and phone usage have on a child, but the experts are saying we’ll have to wait and see what this neglected generation becomes.

More to come.