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Daycare Sparks Controversy For Telling Parents To 'Get Off Your Phone'

“Your child is happy to see you! Are you not happy to see your child??”

A Texas daycare is getting backlash after it posted a frank reminder telling parents to “get off your phone.”

The sign was posted in January and quickly went viral after Hockley mom Juliana Farris Mazurkewicz, whose three-year-old daughter attends the unnamed daycare, shared a photo of it on Facebook.

“You are picking up your child! GET OFF YOUR PHONE!!!!” the sign reads. “Your child is happy to see you! Are you not happy to see your child??”

“We have seen children trying to hand their parents their work they completed and the parent is on the phone,” it continued. “We have heard a child say ‘Mommy, mommy, mommy…’ and the parent is paying more attention to their phone than their own child. It is appalling. Get off your phone!!”

Although the sign is brutally honest, Mazurkewicz told ABC13 that she agreed with the daycare’s message.

“I was surprised that they would be so bold,” she said, “but also I liked it.”

After just one week, Mazurkewicz’s photo has been shared more than 1.3 million times and has received thousands of comments. But not everyone agrees with the sign as strongly as the Texas mom.

While some argued the daycare made a good point...

Others said the daycare was wrong to post a sign that shamed and judged parents.

Some even noted that it was downright hypocritical that the photo of the sign was taken by a parent with a cell phone.

But regardless of the different stances, the daycare still has a point. Social media has quickly become a big part of our lives, with millennials spending more than six hours online each week and people aged 35 to 49 spending seven hours a week, according to a new study from Nielsen.

With so much time spent on social media these days, the daycare’s sign is a good reminder that sometimes it's better to save phone time for later if you can.

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