I thought the internet made parenting easier. It also made me less present.

The author (not pictured) regrets her heavy phone use around her kids. Catherine McQueen/Getty Images I thought I was balancing work and parenting well. My adult children helped me see how often I was mentally elsewhere. I regret the everyday moments I lost to my phone more than my career. My son was 11 when he volunteered to be the boy soloist at the school Christmas concert. Nobody else would do it. That alone made me proud. He stood up there looking like a young Aled Jones, and he was magnificent. The school hall was packed. Other parents leaned forward in their plastic chairs. So smart in his pressed uniform and surprisingly melodic. It was one of those moments that announces itself — pay attention, this is the real thing. I took out my phone to film him.