Stanley Opus
Bonding through everyday chores strengthens love, trust and teamwork between parent and child.
Put the phone down. Your child needs your eyes, not your screen
We are the most connected generation in history, yet a profound disconnection is quietly eroding the heart of our families. Our days are consumed with scrolling through feeds, responding to work messages, and keeping pace with relentless endeavours. In this whirlwind, we risk neglecting our most sacred duty: the simple, daily gift of undistracted, face-to-face time between a parent (or caregiver) and child. In our country where four in every ten (41.6%) children aged 3 to 5 attend early childhood education, those moments of eye-contact, chatter and play are not a luxury, but they are lifelines.
Mobile phone ownership in Uganda is significant and growing, with the 2024 National Population & Housing Census reporting that 43.3% of individuals aged 10+ (13.6 million people) owned a mobile phone, a 2.6 million user increase from 2014. 67% of the active mobile subscriptions with internet use in early 2024, used it for social networking. While connectivity has opened new doors, it has also introduced a modern rival to child-nurturing time: technoference, the everyday interruptions caused by phones, screens, and divided attention.
Research from University of Wollongong and recent emerging meta-analyses and population studies reveal small but consistent associations between parental device use in a child’s presence and poorer cognitive, social and behavioural outcomes. When a parent’s gaze drifts to a screen, a child misses out on tuning a developing brain to language, empathy and regulation. The loss is invisible in a headline but audible in a child’s first words and visible in a classroom of distracted learners.
Our children have already paid a high price in recent years. The shockwaves of school closures and economic strain increased vulnerability, interrupting learning and care routines and exposing children to heightened risks. That is why our choices at home — how we spend ten, twenty, thirty minutes of undivided attention — are now critically urgent.
So, what can we do? Start small but make it sacred. Designate a daily “look me in the eyes” slot — 15 to 30 minutes free from devices and chores. Tell stories. Sing. Ask open questions. Narrate what you’re doing. Working parents can reclaim morning or bedtime rituals; elders can become daily narrators of family history. Schools and health centres should encourage and even measure such practices as part of early childhood promotion. Employers, too, can play their part in supporting this by respecting predictable family time. This is not about guilt; it’s about investing minutes that compound into lifetime returns.
Positive, consistent face-to-face interaction builds neural pathways associated with resilience, empathy, and problem-solving, an investment with high possible returns. We can support the next generations to be resilient, curious, and compassionate citizens. However, we must begin with the smallest but most powerful step: looking our children in the eyes, every single day.
This op-ed was first published by The Monitor.
