Today's Kids and their Uber-Distractive Portable Electronic Babysitters

Posted on Sat 12/31/05 in Fatherhood

While I was waiting in the deli line at Publix today, I looked down to my side and saw a five-year-old kid sporting earbud headphones and an iPod. He was straight jamming out to whatever music library he had loaded: probably Usher or 50 Cent and all the other latest pop R&B hits. My immediate assumption was that he probably wears them everywhere, already learning the 21st Century tactics for avoiding all possible human interaction.

I wondered: is this how parents keep their kids from bothering them? I condemned the behavior in my head, imagining that his home toy collection was filled with self-contained games and gadgets, alleviating him from sibling communication.

I flashed back to the many occasions Beth and I had been out to dinner and scoffed at families having dinner next to us, their thirteen-year-old son with $99 monitor headphones frantically thumbing text messages to his friends about when he would escape the torturous family outing.

Portable gaming systems at dinner? Instant Messenger during his sister’s Bat Mitzvah? I don’t think so.

Have some respect.

Today, my son received his first Rock from Geoff, a.k.a. Beastmaster. Soon, he will be introduced to the Snake and the Bike. There will be a time for electronic babysitters, but certainly not during time with the family.