IHouse

Kevin bought an IPad this past Monday and ironically felt overwhelmed on Tuesday.  With all of the technology in the house, what is the best way to efficiently use it all?  We have four IPods and now an IPad.  Kevin has Spotify (another music service) on his phone.  Both Kevin and I have different ITunes accounts and user accounts on our Laptop.  Should we consolidate everything just to make life easier? What are we going to do when we have three, four, or even five "accounts?"

Given that kids these days learn how to work a DVD player before they can even say "Disney," we need to figure out soon how we are going to manage all of our technological toys in our house.  I read an article in Parenting Magazine about "Screen Time" and how we can't just apply it to TV anymore.  When I was little, we just had the TV and the stereo system (which I am proud to say I learned to work at a young age so I could listen to Michael Jackson over and over and over and over).  However, CJ will have a TV (with one hooked up to a Wii), a DVD player (which can connect to the Internet including Neflix) an IPad, IPods, a laptop, a Kindle, our phones, and whatever other fun toys everyone just HAS to have.  We haven't even entered the world of Leap Frog yet.  However, we did get something at a shower that is for babies 6 months and up- it looks cute, but sheesh! 

I will have to admit, I am guilty of having the TV on the background or checking Facebook on my phone while sitting with CJ as he kicks and bats on his playmat.  He actually was sitting in his bouncer as I started this blog post.  At some point, we will be going out more to story times, play dates, and the playground (if it EVER stops raining!)  Soon he will actually pay attention and look at the pictures when we read to him.  Hopefully next summer he will not cry when his foot touches the water in a pool.  I know that there will be some days where I will just have to give him the IPad to amuse himself so I can get something done around the house.  At least you there are many educational aspects to it!  There will be no addictions to Angry Birds!

So, I guess for the next few months we need to buy a charging station (all of those cords hanging from random outlets around the house are a strangulation risk anyway), work on not checking our phones so much (at least we don't during meals), and figure out how to best use all of the technology with a baby/toddler without relying on it too much.  I'm telling you though, as I look out the window only to see that it is pouring again, that for rainy days a toddler boy might just have to be happy with a little Pixar.