Tech Savvy Generation..

When my husband got his iPhone a few weeks back, picture me - handling it gently and as reverently as possible - but the two youngest members of the household took to it so fast that I was a bit ashamed of my hesitation ! I have now stopped being surprized by the complete lack of fear/doubt in my children while adopting a new and unfamiliar technology.
Here goes trying to capture the tech-friendly activities of my household. For the record, Damita is 5 yrs 7 mths, and Shehan is 2 yrs 10 mths :).

1. D's first exposure to chess will be on the iPhone! She's fascinated when her dad plays and I'm sure she'll get to it pretty soon. She also is quick to demonstrate to me how to get to some menu item or to play some game if I show the slightest hesitation on how to do it :).
2. S who's not yet 3 can already unlock my Nokia phone and get to the music folder and play his favourite song. Of course this also means he unintentionally calls the first number on my phonebook sometimes ;). Am planning to store my home number under "AAAAA" so noone else will get bothered.
3. D has been playing Bowling on the Nintendo Wii for a while now and with her example to follow even S can play on his own now. He can even serve the ball while playing tennis but obviously cannot follow through :). D is also quite good at other puzzle based games on the Wii.
4. They are both completely unafraid to handle my laptop. Initially I was very thrilled with this, and thought I should not "limit" them in exploring new stuff, but when files started disappearing or shifting location this got a bit difficult so now they are allowed to play only with "their" laptop which is the kind meant for children to learn alphabets and number related activities.
5. S has picked up alphabets and numbers all on his own because of "playing" with the above kiddie laptop!!
6. D of course knows the numbers of all the TV channels she likes to watch, and now to my horror even switches channels during commercial breaks! But to my complete amazement I found that even S is now able to press a 3 digit channel number(on TataSky) to get to Pogo!!!
7. When exposed to a Samsung Galaxy Tab for the first time, S was moving his fingers around the screen and manipulating the menu like he'd done it a million times before. I was of course holding my breath as it was someone else's and I get a bit paranoid about my kids breaking something, but everyone else was just fascinated.

Sure there's lots more to that list that I can't remember right now but I'll stop for now with this experience-

I'm sure all parents know how impossible it can be for adults to have a conversation when children are also around in the room, as they are impervious to what the adults are trying to say to each other, and will keep trying to have their word instead :) !! Well I've figured that one out atlast - all it needs is one iPhone and one Android phone in each one's hand and they're glued to the games, and we can have our chats more or less uninterrupted!!!

Chinese Vs Western parenting ?

I was reading Garima's blog at http://mommy-in-making.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-chinese-mothers-are-superior.html and it touched a chord. That in turn points to another article where the author talks about chinese or a very strict/constraining parenting style compared to a western or more protective style. After reading all that, please come back here ;).

While the author's views sounded quite extreme, one point she made stood out to me. She said that in their methods of parenting and how they treat their child - "Chinese parents assume strength, western parents frailty". This addressed something that has been running in my mind ever since I started hearing about the suicides by young children for reasons ranging from failing an exam to being harassed at school. By being extremely protective or reassuring parents are we bringing up our children to be so frail that they are unable to face the world on their own, and any criticism or failure pushes them over the edge?
I personally am by most descriptions, a "strict" parent. I bring up my children to clean up their room after play, be polite to elders, and don't tolerate it if my daughter does an entire page of homework wrong due to inattention when she is perfectly capable of doing the same entirely correct in under 2 minutes. Although blindly pushing our children along certain paths might be wrong, it is also very wrong to let them get away with sloppiness because of being afraid to hurt their feelings! I am very vocal with my disappointment, but on the other hand I also believe in showing affection physically and in speech a lot - as this is something a lot of our generation missed out on with our parents. The "I love you"s and the hugs were more understood than said or done out loud and I don't think that's the way it should be. And I have also said "sorry" to my child when I misunderstood something she said or did :).
 
I have berated myself many a time wondering if I am doing things right. I definitely want to protect my children forever, but they need to be prepared for dealing with the outside world, and I want to equip them well so that they become truly confident people ready to face anything and come out strong at the other side.
 
Postscript: Above all else, the channel of communication between parent and child must always be open - if the child feels they can share ANYTHING with you, then they will hopefully be able to come and talk to you when something is bothering them.