It’s
quite telling when I depend on my 13 year-old son
and 11 year-old daughter to program my new cell
phone, change the screen and then explain to me how
to work my e-mail.
It’s
quite telling when I look to the people in my home
who haven’t yet finished middle school to go
online, transfer music to my iPod, and then organize
my music according to genre. Did I even know what
the world genre meant when I was a kid?
The
most telling of all is to have my nine year-old son
– the one who has a hard time completing his
homework – fix my digital camera. For free.
And I have no idea how he did it.
Quite
telling, indeed. Not only have I lost my technical
mo-jo, but my credibility as someone with a 21st
Century brain has been compromised.
Not
that I have ever been that computer savvy. In
fact, I won’t claim to have always been the
brightest in the bunch. But for 13 years my
children have made me feel like a regular Albert
Einstein. The revered Oz from The Wizard of
Oz. The Godfather of sorts, who all people could
come to with questions and requests – even if
those questions and requests had only to do with
providing snacks, needing to pee, or explaining why
raindrops stick to the car windows.
Ah,
yes, once upon a time I had a tiny following of
little people who looked to me for answers.
For everything.
No
more.
You
see, once my children hit the fifth grade, I could
no longer help them with their math homework.
Once they hit the sixth grade and began diagramming
sentences, I could no longer assist with English
homework (yes, a writer who can’t take apart a
sentence…Sister Edith would be ashamed). And
finally, seventh grade. Let’s just say I’m
glad my son no longer requires my assistance.
Or, if he does, he knows I won’t be of much help
so he doesn’t bother asking.
Maybe
this is Mother Nature’s way of weaning parents
from their children – especially the parents who
can’t seem to cut the academic apron strings (You
know the ones…they insist on doing their child’s
solar system project or writing that book report.).
The
way Mother Nature sees it, if parents can’t cut
the ties on their own then she will formulate a way
to cut the ties for them. Nothing makes a parent
back off more than knowing they are simply too dumb
to continue carrying their children through school.
Or,
maybe it’s just me. Maybe my children have
surpassed me in so many areas simply because they
are more clever, have more technical mo-jo than I
could ever dream, and are getting a great education
in life.
I
hope so.
Every
new generation of parents want their children to
have a better life than their own. We want our
children to be smarter, more successful and,
hopefully, happier.
So,
when my kids chuckle because I can’t quite grasp
the latest iPod or computer software, that’s okay.
I
for one don’t mind a little Humble Pie – not
when it’s served by children who, day by day, get
a little smarter then their dear old mom.
Wendy
D’Alessandro lives in South Florida with her husband and
three children. She is a public relations consultant
who has admitted to clients that 1) Her children really did
eat the fax; and 2) Her child pushed the send button on her
email before she had a chance to finish a sentence, sign her
name and do a spell check.
