West Hartford Mom's Blog on Distracted Living Goes Viral

After nearly allowing technology to claim the life of her 3-year-old daughter, West Hartford blogger Jennifer Meer had an epiphany so powerful that it has resonated with thousands of people across the Internet.

Indeed, her post at My Jenn-eration was picked up by the Huffington Post, where it has been shared nearly 10,000 times on Facebook by others realizing that the demands of social media, electronic devices and our harried modern culture may be exacting too much.

The story begins when Meer is multitasking – hurrying one child into the bathtub then on to help the next into the shower. She gets distracted by an email and by the time she returns to the child in the tub, the girl has fallen asleep.

The outcome could have been tragic but it wasn’t. Instead it was a wakeup call, Meer says. And not only for her, but for many.

Since the post was published on the Huffington Post, the article has 167 comments, with 141 pending as of Monday afternoon. Some chide Meer for leaving a child alone in the bath – something she admits to having done before – while others preach on how they always turn devices off for family time.

But mostly, the comments sound like this: 

“You just spoke about my life. I so agree with you. In trying to cram so much in, I'm actually missing out. Thanks for writing this.”

“distracted living is affecting us all… I had some wake up call moments that changed my way of thinking … Realizing I am not super woman has made things a little better.”

“...it is so true that society has turned into a FULL-SPEED train with no brakes! This issue doesn't just happen to parents, this happens to all ages, all genders and nationalities. I have found myself at times multi-tasking between reading emails, doing my daughter's homework and still trying to cook dinner. Thank you for the reminder of how to SLOW DOWN :)”

Meer also appeared on ABC's Good Morning America.

“If I had tried to squeeze in one more thing … it really did haunt me to think about what could have happened,” she said on the program.

“How many emails can I send? Can I get his shower done? What else can I get done? Almost being incapable of single-tasking. The ability to do one thing well or even two things well and two things that matter well – that is where I feel I’ve been struggling lately.”