The thought was this: “Why is it always so *y@#&^% humid here in Singapore? Douglas Adams was right to have recommended that interstellar hitchhikers carry a towel with them everywhere they go!”

This was followed closely by another equally valid, but completely unrelated thought: what if there’s a whole generation of kids growing up with the belief “I’m not important” because almost all the adults in the world are addicted to their phones*?

Not being able to do anything in that moment about the subject of the former thought, Michelle decided to do something about the latter one. She decided to write a children’s book to help children learn they were important, because:

a) she knew that children learn through the power of story;

b) she had nothing better to do in Singapore at the time; and

c) she knew that she wasn’t going to be giving up her own phone habits any time soon.

So Michelle set about writing a children’s book (called “I Am Important: A ‘phenomenally important’ book to help children know they matter in this age of digital devices”) about a girl who thought she wasn’t important because her parents were so often busy or distracted on their digital devices.

* By way of background to this thought: Michelle had previously listened to an audio program by Shelly Lefkoe called Parenting the Lefkoe Way. In this program, Shelly taught that our children are always concluding things about themselves based on their interactions with us.

She gave the following example: Let’s imagine that you’re a young child, and you want to show a drawing you’ve done to your mother (who happens to be on the phone at the time). You say “Mummy, mummy, look what I drew!”, to which your mother replies “I’m on the phone, go away!”

So what are you likely to conclude about yourself from this interaction? The answer: I’m not important.