From Eight-Tracks To iPads

Raising My Children In The Digital Age

by: Charity Gaspar
From Eight-Tracks to iPads
I was born in the age of eight-tracks and LPs. Cassettes and CDs have come and gone, as have VHS tapes and LaserDiscs. In thirty-five years, computers have become portable and phones have become cordless. Floppy disks (both 5.5” and 3.25”) have become flash-drives and “clouds.” 
 
Once in a while, my mind boggles at the sheer rate that technology advances. I have kept up as best I can—I even enjoy learning new software and figuring out new gadgets—but my kids' abilities to pick up a device and start using it always amazes me. To them it seems to be second nature. 
 
I remember giggling when (at age one) my boys would be handed a new stuffie, and the first thing they did was press it’s paw, wide eyed in anticipation of what song it would sing, what word it would utter, or what movement it would make. When I bought them a stuffed animal that didn’t move, I would have to clarify that it was a “hugging stuffie.” 
 
There is a YouTube video that I came across a few months back, in which a baby (maybe nine-months old) was swiping an iPad, watching the pictures change and the colours transform by her touch. The iPad was then taken away and replaced with a magazine. The first thing she did was press the pictures—nothing. Swiped the page—no response. It was cute, but also interesting to watch.  
 
DX, our four-year-old, will not know a world without TV On Demand (he’s constantly asking us to pause the channel). DM, our six-year-old, was playing a game on his father’s iPhone when I texted my husband. Not knowing DM had the phone, I waited patiently for a response. A few moments later, I received this text: “hi its me.” My six-year-old son texted me! I was blown away. Watching them grow up surrounded by this technology makes me so much more aware of how very different the world becomes with each generation. 
 
I mean, can you imagine the technology our grandkids will be using in thirty years? I wonder what technology will have come and gone by 2042 . . .
 
For 5 ways to use technology for quality time, click here.
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raising children in the digital age
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charity gaspar
Charity Gaspar

Mom of 2 boys, stepmom to a 3rd.  My passion is reading and writting (when I get the opportunity).  

 

Being a mom is more difficult than I ever anticipated.  My roles as a mom, step-mom  wife, cleaner, taxi-driver, sister, daughter, female, human, etc., all seem to change as fast as my kids change.  

One of my parenting goals is to teach my kids to notice and appreciate the small things in nature and in life (the sound rain makes on the roof, snow falling in big flakes with no wind, the sound of cicadas in summer, the texture and smell of paper books).   By doing this I hope life will slow down for them (and me)

It's a wild, fleeting ride.  Enjoy it while you can!