Thursday, July 21, 2011

Kidspeak

I know my kids are growing up in a different world than I did. A world filled with all kinds of technology that I have only just become accustomed to. Heck, I didn't even have an email address until college and now I'm hoping I can keep my kids from getting one before they turn 8 or 9 years old. I'm also worried about cell phones. Seems like every kid has one these days and I just can't imagine why they would need one.

Well, it seems my kids are already thinking about things like this much sooner than I thought based on some recent happenings. The other day I counted how many phones we had in our toy bins (both fake and real-but-no-longer-functioning ones) and I was appalled. TWELVE. Yes, that's right, twelve. So we have three phones PER CHILD in our house for them to play with. Oops. I guess I'm not acting too preemptively when it comes to teaching my kids that they don't need a cell phone.

On top of all this, both my husband and I have iPhones. So the kids get to see texting, internet, and apps first hand every day. We do have a few kid apps on our phones, but we only use them for emergencies (like keeping Luke quiet during the triplets' school program, etc.). I feel like we've done a good job of limiting their technology/phone/computer use so far, but they do witness us doing it every day.

So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when the following conversation took place in our car. It was only a matter of time and it kind of gave me a wake-up call of what I will be in for in a few years.


Me: "Do you guys want to hear a song?"

I often hook my phone up in the car so I can play some of the kids' music and songs while we drive.

Adah: "Yes! I want to hear some music!"

Me: "Great. I'll turn it on. Hold on one second."

Peyton: "Mom when I get big are you going to give me a phone of my own that I can listen to music on?"

Me: "Ummmm ... you mean so you can listen to a few songs on my phone?"

Peyton: "No, Mom! I want my OWN phone to listen to music and watch bideos (translation: videos) on!"

Mom: "You're already asking for that? Couldn't you at least have waited until elementary school?"

Peyton: "Nope! Now can we listen to 'Til The world Ends? I wanna hear Britney."

Welcome to parenting in the 21st century.

2 comments:

  1. i'm gonna be honest, i think the fact that they asked for britney by name and song title might be worse than the cell phone part of this thing :)

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  2. I know!! We usually listen to KLOVE radio EXCEPT for the few times I let them listen to my workout mix when they want something different. Of course those are the songs they remember and ask for! (And yes, I do have Britney on my workout mix :) )

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