Jen Flint watched in horror as a mom on her phone at the pool ignored her 4-year-old daughter, all while snapping fake photos to tell a completely different story on social media. But Jen’s now-viral post shares the truth about that day. And it’s a message we all need to hear!
As social media continues to saturate our world, it can lure folks into two potentially disastrous traps: distraction and comparison.
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And that’s why a 2019 viral post from a woman named Jen Flint about a mom on her phone at the pool remains just as powerful today!
Mom On Phone Ignores 4-Year-Old
Jen Flint of St. Augustine, Florida, was enjoying a swim with her family at the local pool when she noticed something heartbreaking.
A stylish mom caught Jen’s eye as she arrived at the pool with her 4-year-old daughter. Both mother and daughter donned “very nice coordinating swimming suits”. And the little girl waited patiently for her mom, who was on the phone, to finish setting up their things.
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After the phone call, the mother laid out a matching towel and spent time perfectly arranging various sunscreens and water toys.
After a few perfectly posed selfies with her daughter, the little girl asked if she could get in the pool. The mom told her to wait and proceeded to take more posed photos of her daughter getting in and then out of the pool.
After that, the little girl was allowed to get in the water to play. Meanwhile, mom got back on her phone to call a friend.
“Mama, can you come in the water with me, please?” the little girl begged.
Sadly, though, the mom ignored every request from her daughter to come and play. She spent nearly all of the brief time at the pool on the phone.
“After 10 minutes Mama ended her call, collected the sunscreen that was never applied, the water toys that never touched the water, and then her daughter and left the pool,” Jen said on Facebook.
Comparison Robs Joy
The whole experience weighed heavily on Jen Flint. The distraction of social media had clearly robbed the 4-year-old girl of quality time with her mom. But that wasn’t the only thing bothering Jen.
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Jen had watched this mom on her phone stage photos that would give a completely different impression when she shared them online. And Jen knew all too well there would be other moms out there comparing the mess of their real lives to this mom’s faked perfection.
“She’s going to look at that photo and she is going to compare herself to the perfect Mama at the pool,” Jen Flint wrote in her post exposing the truth about the mom on her phone. “The Adversary is going to whisper into her ear ‘you aren’t good enough… You don’t look like that Mama at the pool… You don’t have money to buy expensive swimming suits like that and you don’t have time to make memories like she is’ and that young Mama is going to believe it. She’s going to feel like a failure.”
Mom Shares Truth In Viral Post
Jen chose to share this story for this very reason. She knew all of us needed a reminder on the dangers of comparison. Social media makes the comparison game even easier, these days.
But as Jen Flint points out in her post:
“What we see on Social Media isn’t always real. Sometimes and often it’s a complete set-up. It’s staged and filtered and it’s counterfeit.”
So don’t try to be anyone else but the best you God designed YOU to be!
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“And let not your behavior be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God.” Romans 12:2
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h/t: Facebook/Jen Flint