The best thing about my kid-free commute: Rediscovering the phone

For the first time in my life I have the luxury of driving to work.  This has given me approximately 30 minutes, three days a week, where I am all alone, in the quiet space of my own car.

Listen to Kinderling Conversation: 

You can say a lot in 15 minutes

Some days, it’s all about listening to the news, or downloading a podcast episode. But recently I’ve found myself drawn to the phone.

For some, the phone has always been the best option, but not for me. Oh no. Loving the phone is a very recent about-turn. After four and half years of trying to juggle two small children, work and life, I found emails and texts a better way to connect.

I could send them when it suited me. I could finish my thoughts and ask a whole bunch of questions to save time. And I could read replies when I had a quiet moment.

But something has changed – thanks to the car.

The car has given me a window of time I didn’t have before, and privacy to chat.  And chat I do!

My 15 minute commute has allowed me the opportunity to finish a conversation again, and the voices of loved ones can be so reassuring after a hectic morning.

Not to mention the laughing.

It’s like all the years I’ve spent avoiding the phone because I couldn’t have a decent conversation, have flown out the window thanks to that one pocket of time in my day.

My newfound phone love has made me nostalgic

The last time I remember enjoying the phone so much was as a 16-year-old after school chatting to my best friend (who’d I’d spent the day with) dissecting the meaning of life, and laughing till snot came out of my nose.

Good times.

Now I’m a working parent with a part-time job, who spends lots of time with two busy little boys, the luxury to finish a conversation is not lost on me.

In a bid to understand my own transformation I did what any self-respecting person with access to the Internet all day does: Googled it.

And after about ten or so minutes scrolling time I found the explanation on point #13 of Logan Sykes list of reasons to ditch the text in favour of the phone: phone calls require your full attention.

Logan writes:

"When you're in a phone conversation, you have to be in that phone conversation otherwise you're going to seem like a total jerk if the person you're talking to asks a question after you haven't been listening for the past five minutes. Texting lets people off the hook to do as they please, answer when they want (if at all), and fein undivided attention."

So, here’s to the car.

And hands free mobile phones.

And finding my voice again.