When your kids are more tech-smart than you

It happens. As a parent, living in a time when kids have access to technology for both personal, and educational use, you realize your kids are more tech-smart than you.

It’s happened to me. It probably happened a while ago, I was just in denial. 

The reality is that my kids are more tech-smart than me and it’s only going to get worse.

It was kind of bound to happen. Their father is an IT Geek, with extensive tech knowledge, and what he doesn’t;t know about how smartphones, computers, and other gadgets work, probably isn’t worth knowing. The kids have picked up his skills and also because they are millennial children they have been exposed to technology in a way I never was. They have never seen a VCR or used a camera with actual film in it but they can show me how to work Apple Pay on my iPhone…

I finally realised with a sense of doom, that I was old, and probably still pretty technically inept, when I was alone in the house, because the children had gone cycling with their father, and I decided to sit down and watch TV. Watching TV alone, in peace, viewing what I want to watch, happens very rarely these days, and there was a TV series I had in mind to watch, whilst doing some work.

I picked up the Apple TV remote. And then I realized… I had no idea how to use the damn thing. Which we have owned for a year.

That’s ridiculous, right? I had no idea how a tiny piece of plastic and metal works. I had no idea how to use it. I have mostly ignored it for a year and the children and husband use it, and I have never had the need to learn, until now.

I probably could have googled, but I decided to try myself. After all the kids make it look easy. Most of the time they pick it up and talk to it and it gets the TV to do what they want. It can’t be that hard, can it?

Or maybe it can be that hard. The damn thing won’t work for me. I pressed, I talked, I waved it. I got the TV to turn on, but that was about it. I gave up after a while and decided to listen to the radio instead. That, at least, I can still do.

When my children and husband came home, I humbly (ok, I was a bit grumpy and tetchy) asked them to show me how to work the Apple TV remote. Which of course they did, whilst gently mocking me and muttering things about “mum is such a tech DINOSAUR”.

Showing my age. When your kids are more tech-smart than you it’s fairly humiliating. Let’s not mention that my son knows how to bypass my Amazon password security and that my teenager knows how to use photo and video editing software better than me, because I am not sure I am ready to talk about either of those things, yet…

Obviously, this blog post is tongue in cheek. I am very conscious of safeguarding, internet safety, tech safety, and making sure my children are safe and well whilst they may be more tech-savvy than me. A good friend of mine runs Digiscope Education which is a very helpful site with lots of resources, and helpful advice for parents who want to protect their kids, educate themselves, and learn how to use the amazing world of technology we have around. She’s very helpful and kind so please do check her out, all parents, when your kids are more tech-smart than you even if we don’t know how tech works,  we hould make the effort to learn.

Also, if you are looking for something to help your kids communicate and feel safe, but are not ready for them to have a phone, then we highly recommend My Gator Watch, and it’s something worth looking at for peace of mind for parents. It’s also really easy to use and set up and even this tech dinosaur can manage it…