I took my kids to the playground without my phone – and it was a revelation

‘I know people who will do anything to avoid playground duty, will beg their friends to coordinate so they don’t have to do it alone.’ Photograph: Jack Sullivan/Alamy

It is a truism of parenting that it goes so fast, but as anyone who has been forced to sit on a bench and watch their children run tireless circuits of the playground knows, sometimes it goes so slowly you feel as if you’re losing your mind.

I know people who will do anything to avoid playground duty, will beg their friends to coordinate so they don’t have to do it alone, or will discreetly wear headphones throughout so that, while maintaining eyes on their children, they can listen to a podcast and be entirely mentally absent. As the weather heats up and we crawl out of our screen-dependent winters, New York playgrounds are alive with the shriek of, “Joshua, 10 minutes!”