Tough lessons

Technology is both a blessing and a curse. I am so grateful to have this handy iPad. It makes writing these little musing that much easier and portable. My children are thankful for their iPod Touches, for they help to pass the hours in the waiting rooms and on car trips. They have Kindle apps so they can have books at the ready. How could it be a curse? Sometimes I feel that they turn to quickly towards the technology instead of occupying themselves with good old crayons and paper. Ninety percent of their fights originate from the iPods, which causes me to curse. While all of this is fairly common for a lot of kids, we recently found out what a good learning tool the iPod is. One of the girls went recently for some time with a friend. Before she left, she ran back inside for a minute. I was tired enough that I didn't question her motives. She had grabbed her 'pod without discussing it with us. This was not an accident. Our policy is that your things are your responsibility and it will be so sad if it gets broken...whether by your hand or another's. Accidental or on purpose, too bad. While she was off somewhere else, smaller hands took hold to play with it and it was accidentally dropped. This is how it fared:



Not too good. The hands that dropped it were heartbroken and more than sufficiently remorseful and the parent even went out and purchased another to have upon the girl's return. She was fine with this outcome, but the smile turned back into a frown when my husband would not accept the generous gift. Sure it wasn't her fault, but she took it without discussion. Many tears and gnashing of teeth were to follow, but the hub did not budge. Luckily for her, the Apple Store has refurbed iPods that can be obtained for a reduced price. While we paid, initially, for the replacement, her cash payment and sweat equity is ours for quite a while, as is her brother's who was one part of the little hands. AND, with complaints about any extra chores come additional dollars to pay off.

Do you think we are mean? No disrespect, but it doesn't matter. She snuck it and it was broken. She'll think about that every time we have her scrub the bathroom floor with a toothbrush, after her brother has cleaned the toilet. It does hurt to exact punishment and consequences on them, but I'd rather teach her now.

Now it is off to finish camp packing. Our bed is the staging area:



I need to get going so we can sleep tonight. I'll be dreaming of Ziplocs.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad