I’m pretty new to this culture of texting. My kids are young enough that they use their electronics mostly to play games and not to text, although every once in a while I will get Facetimed from the other room (which I view as kind of a game, actually). As a result, I’m a little out of the loop.

When I’m home, my phone is usually somewhere in the house and chances are, I can’t find it. You know that “Find Your Phone” app? It was meant for me. I use it a minimum of five times a week to find my phone so I leave my house with it. Chances are, I have some messages waiting for me and quite possibly, some pretty frustrated friends to boot.

I’m not sure what etiquette has to say about texting, but my guess is that most of us are violating it. I am definitely violating it on response time — I’m inconsistent.  There are plenty of times where I may not see a text for hours.  Sorry, friends.  

Most people I know, however, are violating it on the other side — they are too available. I can’t count how many times I’ve watched people on their phones, ignoring the people directly in front of them. They finish their text only to be chirped, or dinged, or beeped (or even barked) at again 20 seconds later.

I’m not saying that there isn’t a good reason for it. Most often, the person is responding to a child’s request or making arrangements for said child.  I get it — I raise kids too and I know that sometimes, we have to interrupt what we are doing and take care of something emergent.  

But not every time.

As parent texters, we’ve gotten used to being interrupted, particularly by our children. Where prior generations expected an “excuse me” or “I’m sorry to interrupt” from their kids, we do not.  We jump to our beep or our chirp and we answer — for even the most trivial of questions.  

It seems to me the message we are sending to this new generation of texters is not merely our reply. The real message we are sending is that we are ready to be interrupted, any time, any place, for any reason. Perhaps it’s time we teach our kids to incorporate a good, old fashioned “excuse me” into this new world of texting and, while we are at it, reclaim good, old fashioned eye contact for ourselves.

Ding ding ding.