Situational Awareness

I have a cell phone. Most of us do. What many of us don't seem to have is any sense of cell phone etiquette. It's bad enough I have to listen to any and everyone's phone calls, but the whole cell phone thing is getting out of hand.

I have a texting package on my phone. Again, many of us do. Texting is pretty popular; ask any teenager. They don't use minutes. They text. The big push, now, is to ban texting and driving. It is a good idea. One should not take one's eyes off the road for that long! It's one thing to grab a tissue out of a box next to you or to change the radio station, but to text? while driving? Big no-no.

For many people, there should be a movement to ban texting while walking. It seems many people are incapable of doing both and for pretty much the same reason. It is not a good idea to not look where one is going.

Today, I was at a department store. I was walking along the aisle and saw a woman and a small child coming toward me. Generally speaking, in a wide aisle, people walk on the right. This woman and her child were walking on the left, so they were in my direct path. Being only one person, I was the narrower of the two of us; however, I had to walk around her and her child because she was too busy texting with one hand (holding her son's hand with the other) to even look up and see we were going to collide.

Why? What was she texting that was so important that she couldn't be bothered to look where she was going?

The Boy has a Nintendo DS (The Girl does as well) and we have caught him trying to walk and play. It drives us batty. He pays no attention and has nearly walked into people, shopping carts, and even cars! We have banned The Boy from playing the DS while walking.

I know we are not the only people out there with situational awareness and common sense...!