Keera’s birthday isn’t until Christmas Day, but just like last year my sister can’t be here to celebrate with us. She’s spending Christmas with her family, and I understand how it is. We are all adults and we’ve each got our own things going on in our lives, just the same she’s bummed out she can’t be here to celebrate with us. So the plan was this year to do Keera’s cake and one gift early, so my sister can be here to celebrate with us. Then on Keera’s actual birthday she will open the rest of her presents, then we’ll do Christmas and follow-up with ice cream cupcakes from Dairy Queen; and the regular pastry kind. Which works out pretty good considering I don’t want to have two cakes in a row, and we do need some type of dessert for her actual birthday celebration. We went out for supper at the Olive Garden, then headed home to have some cake.
This year my mom and I went halfzies on one of Keera’s gifts, and I thought it would be perfect to give her that today. This was a really big decision for me, I’ve always told myself I wouldn’t be “that parent”. I don’t believe that the kids should have their own personal Ipad at age 2. I know that she’s only going to be the big 7 this year, but I also know her teacher let’s her and the other students in her class use an Ipad at school.
I have to face the sad reality that times are changing and technology is the future. I would rather she be introduced to these types of things, in an environment where we are around and able to control it.
So we got her a tablet with a keyboard, however there are conditions: she’s not allowed on her tablet unless she’s being supervised, and she has to be sitting at the kitchen table were we can see her. I can’t help but be envious of my mom. I’m not sure if it’s just because I was living “under a rock”, or what but I only set up an email address at the local library when I was 11. I didn’t really use my email until I was 12-13 years old, which was when my family got a computer with dial-up lol.
Even then my internet use wasn’t really for anything besides Hotmail, MSN and school research. My point is parenting now and in the future is going to be even more difficult especially with all the new, and constantly changing technology we’ve got to keep up with.
Now my two-year old knows how to get on my phone {password included} and search for a video on YouTube. My son learnt how to turn on the Playstation3 when he was three, and go on YouTube. He knows how to search for something on YouTube on the ps3, I just learnt how to do that on the Playstation3 a couple of months ago; and that was after my son taught me.
Of course my mom had to deal with us and the dangers of the internet, but I feel like it’s even more dangerous now. I guess my fear is I know how I behaved when I was younger even with what little internet I did use. 
Now that I’ve trailed off topic… back to Keera’s celebration.
We got Keera a traditional ice cream cake, with Elsa on it, which is what she requested. I can’t wait until this Frozen phase is over, it’s still going strong in this house. She was so excited for her tablet, I know that it will take some getting used to but I’m sure it will be good for her. Her teacher last year gave us a math app that’s supposed to help with math, so I will probably set that up on her tablet for her. The kids play it occasionally on my iPad, so I know that they like it. There’s also a couple of websites her teacher gave me that will help improve her French.
So many positive changes will be happening, I just need to teach good internet behaviour, and of course stick to my “guns” when it comes to the rules of the tablet.
What do you think about giving your child a tablet/Ipad/Ipod? If your child has one, what rules do you have set in place?