The problems these preteens have today...

My oldest went to a sleepover last night. I knew all the girls and their parents, so there was no problem. She was told to take "her" phone with her so she could call if anything happened or to let us know when we needed to come get her. The reason I put her in quotation marks is that the phone was originally purchased as a third emergency phone for sleepovers, field and church trips, etc.. It turned into her phone which is okay. Most middle schoolers have them now and it is very nice for us. We have it locked down and texting is restricted and we can read all that stuff. She has a boring phone, no smart phone with internet access and all that stuff that gets kids into serious trouble. We had a little snafu this morning trying to get in touch with her. She turns it off after every use. We had yet to eplain that she needs to have it on when she is away from us. Big whoop. We knew where she was...just the principle of the matter.

This got me to thinking: what does my child have today and what was my equivalent at that age?

1. My Child: An ipod/ipad mini to play games, watch movies, listen to music where ever she goes. What I had: a tape recorder pugged into the cigarette lighter of the car...then a faux Walkman...we had Merlin to play games on:



2. My child: Harry Potter, Twilight(which mine is not allowed to read), Hunger Games, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. What I had: Judy Blume, Flowers in the Attic(which I was not allowed to read) and Chronicles of Narnia(awesome!).

3. My child: One Direction, Adele, Star 102.1 and Selena Gomez. What I had: Hall&Oates, Madonna, 101.5 WQUT, Men at Work and some U2. I think there is clear winner there.

4. My child: Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Food Network, PBS and 132-136 or something on the cable box. What I had: Superstation Funtime on TBS, some Nickelodeon, PBS and maybe some Chef Tell right before the local noon news ended.

5. My child: Bounce houses, xbox, Wii, Nintendo DSi, laser tag, electronics, assaults on the brain and more electronics. What I had: particle board shields and swords my dad made us, hide and seek, sidewalk chalk, street tennis, the Popsicle Lady and day long neighborhood bike rides.

I know my children are happy and I am amazed at all the technology and knowledge they have at their ages. I just wish they had a little bit of the 5-11yr old life I had. It was pretty sweet...
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