Nomophobia? Just stress and anxiety in my humble opinion.

Who has ever heard of nomophobia (the fear of being deprived of a mobile phone ie no mobile phone phobia)? I hadn't until I was listening to the radio while picking the kids up from school last night

And I must say I'm not surprised that such a phobia exists. Most of us are used to being able to contact our loved ones 24/7 no matter where they are or what they are doing.

If they fail to answer our call it's easy to get ourselves worked up into a frenzy of stress and anxiety wondering if an ambo will have the decency to search their contact lists for "mum" while resucsitating our precious offspring at the site of the worst accident in living memory.

Then total relief... They phone - they are OK (which is good because now you can kill them yourself). They didn't answer because they knew it was you and couldn't be bothered talking.

Oh, but they'll talk now. They've spent their bus money and need you to pick them up..... But not before you start explaining (loudly), in gruesome detail, the nightmare they put you through. Don't they understand how much you love them for heavens sake?

You begin to weigh up the pros and cons of grounding them. You decide against it as it's usually more of a punishment for you than them! Unfortunately, the scene is set for similar altercations in the future.

Whatever happened to the days when kids just went off for the day and came home only when they were hungry or it got dark? But don't let me start on that just yet! That's another issue.

The point is that mobile phones are another convenient way for stress and anxiety to manifest themselves. And they will manifest in some way or another unless you learn to tame them.

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