It started with the Ipad training at the beginning of the school year for all incoming 6th graders and their parents. Parents needed to go to the training because.......our kids needed a ride. It was a complicated scenario, with stations set up and a myriad of checklists. It took me about 3 seconds to realize that I was just travelling through my son's brave new world and I was slowing him down:
ME: (warily eyeballing the first checklist) OK, you need to clear.....
SON: (warily eyeballing me) I've already done the first 5 things, you don't need to read those out loud
ME: OK, you want to make sure...
SON: I've got it mom, can you put the list down so I can do this faster?
ME: (incredulously) You don't need me here to do this, do you?
SON (not wanting to hear birth story, again) No, but I want you here
Cut to Station # 2, and this really drills down to the essence of the computer generation vs my people:
SON: OK, now we have a problem, it looks like my original email address is not going to work and I'm going to have to reconfigure the settings
ME: (waving my hand furiously) We need tech support here, we have a problem!!!!!
SON: (pushing my hand down) Mom, let me try a few things on my own before you call in tech support.
Cut to last Wednesday when my husband surprised me with a Keurig coffee maker for our anniversary. We had a dinner date, and left the coffee machine on the counter and the kids with our babysitter.
ME: (upon our return) Did you have a fun night?
DAUGHTER: I love the new coffee maker, it makes great hot chocolate
ME: Did Amy figure out how to use the machine?
DAUGHTER: No, I goggled the directions on how to use it and figured it out myself. It is pretty easy after the first time.
I know my kids are going to surge ahead of me, I just thought I had a bit more time. I think we need to make a deal: I will learn from their new, fired up neurons if they let me lend them some frontal lobe wisdom until they are 25.
It is a brave, new world.
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