Wrong Room


Technology can be a little bit frightening when you’ve got kids.

I remember when I was growing up, the video player would absolutely baffle my parents, leading me to think they’d hit their heads and their brains were addled.

I suspect my kids think similar thoughts when they see me trying to answer our iPhone or, heaven help me, send a text.

Grandma’s tenuous grasp of modern technologies, like the internet and buttons, has become the hot topic of conversation since she arrived home from a couple of months visiting my sister up near Port Douglas. Kerri and her partner, Darryl, run the Pinnacle Village Holiday Park on a lovely stretch of beach (thought I’d give them a nice little plug).

Naturally, the moment I heard my mum had arrived home we phoned her up. The kids had all sorts of questions.

“Did you go on a train? Did you fly in a plane? Did you miss us? Did you bring us anything?”

I had one.

“Can you look after the kids on Monday?” It’s been a hard slog without our babysitter.

So Miss8, Master7 and Miss5 went to Grandma’s on the first Monday of the holidays while Miss0 & Miss2 went to daycare and Tracey and I went to work.

When we picked them all up in the afternoon the middle kids were talking excitedly about what a great day they had.

“We went into a room and chatted with people,” said Miss5.

“It was on the computer,” said Miss8.

“There were lots of Ashes and one weird old man,” said Master7.

“It was fun!” said Miss8.

One weird old man? There’s a phrase to make your hair stand up on end.

“Umm, Mum,” I said when I caught up with her, “just wondering…the kids…something about playing on the computer? I think it was a Pokemon based thing?”

“Oh, yes,” she said airily. “They played Pokemon on the computer.”

“Umm, I think they might have been in a chat room, Mum.”

There was an awkward sort of pause. “Oh, dear. I thought it was just some sort of game.”

I think she’ll probably stick with watching movies from now on. If she can just get that dang Blu-ray thingame to work.

Gorgeous converted train carriage – one of the lovely
accommodation options at Pinnacle Village Holiday Park

 

When not typing away over here and checking his stats every two minutes

Bruce Devereaux hangs out at his ‘BIG FAMILY little income’ Facebook Page.

’raising a family on little more than laughs’

What do you think?

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