You only love me for my phone.

As I put my middle son Hamish to bed last night, he rolled away from me.

“What’s going on buddy?” I said.

“I didn’t get to spend any time with you today”.

He was not a happy camper.

He didn’t want to talk.

I said to him, “Ok, buddy, look… when I get home tomorrow after work, let’s hang out.”

I arrived home and literally had the appointment in my calendar flash up…

“Hangout with Hamish 6–8 pm.”

I come home.

I go down on my knees to give him a hug…

And he says…

“Dad…

Can I have your phone?”

Fuck.

Seriously?

Ok. Well.

I lost this round.

Phone 1. Dad 0.

And this is not an unusual battle for my house and I keep losing.

The weird thing is that Hamish will most likely still feel like he didn’t have enough time with me…

Even though he was the one who chose the phone over hanging out…

What’s worse for me, is that both my boys love playing video games.

But… I am a video game addict.

Even small amounts of exposure trigger off cravings.

It’s the weirdest shit.

As long as I have zero exposure, I’m good.

But even watching them play will bring back my addiction.

Periodically I have to delete all the kid’s games from my phone.

In fact, I lose so much when my addiction kicks in that it actually worthwhile me buying another device just so no games get put on to my phone.

What I am really facing is a daily fucking war.

Me vs the internet.

Me vs the phone.

Me vs the PS4.

I resorted to getting control at the source.

And that control is called Family zone.

It is my only weapon against the games.

I can log in to the Family zone portal, and 1 minute later the devices no longer can access the internet.

The thing is… It is not just me and my kids fighting this war.

It’s you.

It’s you and your family.

I train on passing the FRACGP exams.

Every doctor sitting those exams is facing a similar battle.

The battle against distraction.

The battle against interruption.

And the battle against the powerfully rewarding lure of the internet, even though Netflix, Insta, facebook, and youtube will not take them closer to passing.

If you are seeking methods to defend against distraction and optimize your FRACGP exam prep, then I invite you to take a step towards the single most important requirement for your career — passing your exams — and head to https://www.graduatemedicine.com/gpea now.

See you on the battlefield!