It's great being a geek dad.
My 15 years online has let me create YouTube channels, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, email addresses and blogs for my sons. It's given me the skills to create small movies about their everyday accomplishments and the savvy to continuously play them back in the living room on our Apple TV. Who wants to watch Dora on an adventure when you can watch yourself on one?
I've seen many mom blogs where the moms write monthly letters to their kids and post them as entries on their personal sites. I think it's a great idea, you can easily collect those posts and bundle them into a book to give to your child the day they move out and start to live life on their own.
Then I saw this video:
Well done, Daniel Lee (or Google, after all this is a commercial for Google Chrome).
I have a Gmail account for each of my sons (part of the motivation was an internet land grab to make sure they could have a reasonable address) and I use it when I register them in sports and their school newsletter goes to their account.
But this use case is deeper.
Last week, when Derek K Miller died, I sat my son down and told him about it. He didn't fully understand either situation, he's 4. When I said Derek had cancer, he asked "he was cancelled?" Well, that's sort of on mark. But by sending him an email, I can give my son the emotion of the moment for him to understand when he's older.
Last year, when my grandmother died, I told him about it. He knew his Nan, as well as any 3 year old could, but by writing him an email and explaining the situation a stronger emotional bond to his past could be forged.
Geek dads know the value of plugging their kids into the web for nerdy archiving reasons, Daniel (Google) got the spirit of it. Get your kids an email address. Write them letters. Send them photos. Share your new life together.
You don't have to do it on a blog for the world to see. You don't have to put it on a Facebook page for someone to creep on. Get them an email address and tell them the story of their life through your eyes.
Thanks, Daniel/Google.
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