This Picture cracks me up and sums of the life of my 5 year old (I call her Shout on my blog). She is playing a Nintendo DS while watching Netflix on my iphone. Shout does not want to miss a thing. She always is doing more than one thing at a time. She sings while she draws, she dances while cleaning. A definite multitasker. She does not get it from me that is for sure. I am lucky if I get one task done in a whole day let alone more than one at a time.
Kid’s have so many options these days. I am not going to go on a when I was her age tangent because I am not that old. But when I was her age (oops) we did not have near as many electronic choices. Now there are real laptops, toy laptops, tons of gaming devices and so much more.
When I was in high school I had a pager. I thought I was pretty cool. I made extremely nerdy creative messages on the answering machine which may or may not include me changing the word’s to Broadway tunes and belting out that you should leave a message at the beep. Thank goodness there is no evidence of those messages! I would dash to a phone whenever my pager would beep, I thought I was way ahead of my time. Little did I know that when I was older and had a family of my own my kids would catch up to me technically speaking at such young ages, even my one year old knows how play any game she wants and calculate equations on my iphone all on her own. Maybe I exaggerated a little about the calculating equations part.
I love that my girls learning and are glad they are good on the computer but sometimes I long for days when simple activities for hours would satisfy. I think this coming year I will have to have lots of days where everything is turned off except our imaginations. I know my kid’s would love it and learn a lot in the process.
What do you think has changed the most from when you were growing up to now raising your own children?
Carly is a contributing writer for Mommy Moment. She has 3 very dramatic but beautiful girls ages 7, 4, and 1. Carly loves to write, cook, and connect with other moms through this crazy thing called blogging! See what she has been up to over at www.livingthescream.com
It really is surprising how much things have changed from when we were kids to how it is for our kids. Oregon Trail was the height of computer technology at my school and my kindergartner is already leaning how to type! Crazy. A little less technology can definitely be a good thing.
Alex
Thursday 6th of January 2011
Great post Carly!
To be honest, I don't remember much about my childhood. This is no secret. I do, however, remember that children had more freedom in playing outdoors by themselves. As soon as I was old enough to be left alone with my brother, my parents would head off to work for the day (in the summers). We would wake up, have breakfast and then bike over to my Nana's who lived, literally, on the other side of our little town (you know, one of those towns with only 2 convenience stores, and a billion churches). But now adays (ahaha cuz I'm so old - only 26) I wouldn't DREAM of allowing my 6.5 yr old even walk home from the bus stop by himself (even though he's allowed to) and the bus stop isn't even a block away from out house!!!!
Lady of Perpetual Chaos
Friday 7th of January 2011
It really is surprising how much things have changed from when we were kids to how it is for our kids. Oregon Trail was the height of computer technology at my school and my kindergartner is already leaning how to type! Crazy. A little less technology can definitely be a good thing.
Alex
Thursday 6th of January 2011
Great post Carly!
To be honest, I don't remember much about my childhood. This is no secret. I do, however, remember that children had more freedom in playing outdoors by themselves. As soon as I was old enough to be left alone with my brother, my parents would head off to work for the day (in the summers). We would wake up, have breakfast and then bike over to my Nana's who lived, literally, on the other side of our little town (you know, one of those towns with only 2 convenience stores, and a billion churches). But now adays (ahaha cuz I'm so old - only 26) I wouldn't DREAM of allowing my 6.5 yr old even walk home from the bus stop by himself (even though he's allowed to) and the bus stop isn't even a block away from out house!!!!