Ipods are everywhere.
My dining room, living room, school, van, shower, buried deep beneath the earth’s crust, where our hide-a-key used to be. You name a location I can find you an ipod.
When we made the decision to give the girls ipods at Christmas, it wasn’t as painstaking a conversation as I had expected.
I had my doubts about how young our kids were (9 and 6) at the time. Our three year old would once again have to enjoy the technology she would invent exploring the crumbs on her graham crackers while her sisters reaped the rewards of their favourite new devices.
We had heard, “Mom, Dad, we’re the only kids that don’t have ipods,” at least the same number of times I had begged when I was a teenager kid, “Mom, Dad, I’m the only kid wearing homemade leg warmers, everyone else’s came from Beaver Canoe.”
It turns out, for the first time in history, my kids were the only kids who didn’t have ipods and also, I don’t think Beaver Canoe is in business anymore. Probably because I never bought their leg warmers but I can’t carry that guilt with me forever. It ends today.
I guess I didn’t think the girls would really care once the novelty wore off but they do care, they care a great deal about their gadgets. So much so, Greg and I care even more about them because they are the best negotiating tool we have to keep our kids in line.
If we walk into a room and there’s even the slightest hint of chaos-has-just-left-the-building or a look between the sisters that says whatever-just-went-down-stays-between-us-or-we’ll-lose-our-ipods, we know the girls won’t risk acting in a way that might mean one or both of them losing their favourite new toy.
For the first time in my career as a parent volunteer, I went on a field trip last week and the grade two teacher lined up her kids before leaving the school to get on the bus.
She recited her list of announcements, “Does everyone have a hat on their heads?” pointing to the top of her head the way you would during Simon Says to make kids think they’re being tricked. “Does everyone have gloves on their hands?” Her last set of instructions blew my mind, “If you have an ipod on you, please put it in your backpack to remain at the school.”
Every kid but one (the one with the homemade leg warmers) removed themselves from the line to put away their devices.
Welcome to your ipod years.
