I just realized something today, I’m losing technical relevancy with my kids. Not in the way that they think of me as their dad, no… more along the lines of knowing what’s important in their lives!
I thought I would be able to cherry pick the best things from my childhood and let them share in those experiences that I deemed incredible. Well, now I realize that what I thought was important is no longer relevant! Time has moved on and my personal childhood joys are now obsolete.
I would like to say that kids are different today, but really they aren’t. What different is technology and the way kids adapt to it and thrive!
From an early age, kids are exposed to electronics… even at the infant stage! They push a button on a bear and it growls, or its eyes light up, or it sings a song or whatever the new fancy is. Next, it’s the portable gaming systems like the Nintendo DS, my kids (including my 6-year-old) take them everywhere! Then it’s cell smart phones, like the Apple IPhone, that do everything except iron your clothes! My son and daughter already plan on laptops, soon I’ll hear one of them ask for an Apple IPad for a Birthday or Christmas… it’s just a matter of time.
Electronics and computer (and computing devices) are exposed to them constantly… and they soak it up like a sponge! The stuff I had as a kid looks like a joke compared to what kids have these days!
Then there is the sports! Kids need to start sports when they are young because the competition is so fierce! If you didn’t start your kids out in sports around the ages 5, 6 or 7… it may be too late! And the other parents involved; OMG, you would thing that sports were a matter of life and death.
Yes, it was different when I was a kid, the things back then now seem very slow and hokey to kids today. Electronics and the internet have really changed the game with respect to kids.
My poor parents can no longer understand what I do on the computer, let alone my kids. My parents are truly of a different time, and watching them on a keyboard is like watching a fish out of water flop up and down in the grass. The technical chasm between my parents and my kids is huge!
Readers, do you feel the same as my parents sometimes?
I know that I’m personally trying my best to keep up… I don’t want to become totally irrelevant with respect to technology!
-MR
Our poor little guy is doomed to be weird and different. I think he’ll survive. And he’ll survive without organized sports (though we’re working on finding a swim class… there is no YMCA).
The grandparents have been providing him plenty of electronics though. He is much better at Wii than I am. And DH is already explaining circuit boards to him… even though he’s only in preschool. With me explaining basic labor economics whenever he asks “why” about something, he is going to be the nerdiest kindergartner on the face of the planet.
I am not obsolete yet, but I am sure that time will come. My younger two barely use any electronics except for homework, oh and they do use the Wii. My 16 year old, on the other hand, is much more knowledgeable than I am.
My mom is pretty computer savvy herself. She loves the internet, especially doing family trees, and she even has a facebook!
I think I will be affected more once my kids are out of the house. I won’t have as much a reason to ‘keep up’ with technology when they are gone. I will be a dinosaur at 48 years old!
lol, based on what I’ve read of you, I don’t think you will ever be a obsolete dinosaur 🙂
Besides, your blog is to cool to go exstinct… I’m sure that will keep you in the loop! I hope your oldest start posting on your blog when he is in college. That would be cool 🙂
lol, when my son was in pre-school, I’d take one of our old computers apart and explain the pieces to him too.
He’s pretty good on the internet already. My daughter is too, but she mainly gets on to play webkinz.
My mom just knows that I work “on a computer” and I buy and sell stuff “on the computer”. She doesn’t actually care to learn how or why.
She has used skype with a webcam and thought that was pretty cool.
I told me parents about a webcam too. If I were to do that setup today, I think I would just use gmail to do the voice for the webcam…
Pretty cool mom though. Did you help her set it up?
i have had this challenge in my household as well, especially since my parents are not educated and intimidated by technology. the best way to bridge this gap is for each individual involved (you and the parents) to have the self initiative and desire to become familiar with the latest. it is totally understandable the reluctance on the other side of the fence, and causes frustration often….other than that, speaking in terms that relate to them best is the other way i have been able to minimize the gap