Even the most tech-savvy parents can feel the rug pulling from under us as our kids talk 10 to the dozen about a new YouTube cartoon they’re all into or how to find cheats in their favourite game by doing something gross to zombies. It. Just. Sounds. Like. Noise. Simultaneously, we’ve never been able to remain more connected to our kids, wherever they are.
It’s very easy to feel out of the loop, to feel that ‘technology’ – some dark, creeping homogeneous cloud obscuring the path between you and your kid – is to blame. Until you actually sit down and think about it. We all use technology. You’re reading this on some pretty beefy technology right now. It’s just that sometimes we consume it differently. So I have my technology and my uses for it (my iPhone, my Kindle, my desktop computer at work, my laptop at home, my sat nav…). Ditto my husband.
The family as a whole have technology that we use separately and together – largely focussing on the big TV set that dominates our lounge.
Then the kids have their technology and their uses for it (videos of dogs farting on YouTube, roaming the world from Google Maps and, sometimes, homework). They don’t feel threatened because they don’t understand the email conversations I’m having with my boss, but when we overhear them talking at length about Minecraft and it sounds like another language, we can freak out, question ourselves, and feel like we’re moving in different worlds.
My eldest daughter started secondary school in September, this involved her riding a bus with her friends for the first time, and scared the bejesus out of me. But unlike my first days at Big School, I was able to remain in constant contact with her, receiving texts as she took her seat and then arrived at school. She and I felt connected during the experience.
During Sunday dinner, we use a Spotify app streamed to a Zeppelin speaker to play music that we – as the adults – love and want to introduce to our kids. It’s a nostalgic trip that starts around the Beatles and ends around the Beastie Boys and we all enjoy it. Technology lets us share a world of music, easily.
When I’m on my way home from work at Quib.ly HQ, and I’m missing the kids so much my tummy hurts, I can feel like I have one step through the door by playing social games with them on my phone. It’s not quite as good but boy is it better than my working mum had.
Technology is just a set of tools, it’s how you and your family use those tools that can shrink or widen the gap.
Holly Seddon is the Editor-in-chief of Quib.ly, a members-only community that helps parents give their kids a head start in this connected world. It’s going to be very cool, so request your invite now to be among the first allowed a peek.
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