Geek Like Me

So, you birth a baby boy and he's pretty cute and not too much of a bother...a few years go by and then all of a sudden he's tall and wants you to get off the computer so he can feed his Webkinz and check his Gmail. He's all "mom, it's my turn, you're hoggin' it".

It doesn't matter that he can't read. He emails with his father using emoticons. ;-)

Henry loves the computer and I'm amazed at how skillfully he uses it. I properly safeguard him from harm, but sometimes I get nervous that it's too much too soon. And then I wonder if perhaps I'm just like a mom in the 1930s concerned about the children listening to too much radio. Egads!

The first time I sat down in front of a computer I was twelve. It had a greenish screen with a blinking cursor and I tried unsuccessfully to teach myself DOS.

In high school I passed around a notebook to friends and asked them to write down their feelings and observations and then pass it on for others to make comments and write their own entries. I suppose it was kind of like my first blog. You can imagine my excitement when the internet was born. I sent my first email when I was a freshman in college. It was to a boy I liked and he replied, "You know I have a phone, right?" I guess not everyone was excited about it as I was.

For today's growing children the computer will always have existed. And just like other medias in the past, it has its controversies and concerns when it comes to young minds and the potential harm of overuse. I'm not too concerned about it. The rule in our house is: if you're a good listener and you don't pee your pants, you get computer time. However, I think it's time we all had one of our own.