Ten Ways That Technology Has Changed Parenting

When I'm not teaching, I'm parenting. Again, another occupation that's pretty much hands on. Can't really get a computer to potty train a kid. Though that would be awfully nice and I urge you geeks out there to work on such a program. However, there are still many ways that parenting has changed in recent years, too, due to the Internet and technology.

Ten Ways That Technology Has Changed Parenting:
1) Websites that tell you where the pervs are.
2) Parenting and special education list-servs.
3) Mommyblogs.
4) School comparison websites
5) Parenthacks
6) Increased school budgets for computers and teacher training for computers
7) Um.. getting stuck...

Comments

[MH]

This isn't exactly recent, but let me give a shout-out to my favorite piece of child-care technology: the washing machine. I don't know how people raised children before them. That and YouTube, which lets us watch "C is for cookie" a dozen times in a row.

[Amy P]

Cell phones for tots. (You can track the cell phone geographically, thanks to GPS.)

[Elizabeth]

Needing to watch out for kids texting/calling/IMing when they're supposed to be studying/sleeping/eating.

Never having to type your kid's papers.

Being able to turn your kids' favorite shows on at any time due to TiVO

Portable DVD players for long trips.

[laura]

OK, I thought of more in the past few minutes:

texting the babysitter to make sure she showed up

online multiplication games

online games on TV websites.

[bj]

knowing where the pervs are has changed your parenting? What do you do differently?

TiVo is a big one for us. Our kids don't really know what commercials are.

Liquid soap?

Car seats? We have bigger cars.

Mommy blogs

Online education info, like starfall, enchanted learning

My kids ask me questions all the time, and then ask if I can google, if I don' t know the answer.

DVD players for airplanes? This has made our travel painless recently.

[jen]

My big thing is the ability to shop on-line. It's not really a parenting-specific technology, but it's very useful to parents. I can't break up my kid's nap by dragging them to the store, but I can certainly use that time to get the order in. And it's been a total life-saver for specialty items like allergen-free foods or plus- or slim-sized kids' clothing.

[Amy P]

"Our kids don't really know what commercials are."

My husband said that our daughter thought the TV was malfunctioning the last time she saw commercials. Here you are, in the middle of your favorite show, and it suddenly stops and starts showing something completely different.

[Wendy]

E-bay or Craigslist to buy out of print or hard to find books that the library doesn't have. Or Halloween costumes. I hate shopping (obviously ;), and it's nice to just bring up a bunch of tabs with items and have the kids pick. Soph and I also are looking on Ebay for a dress she can adapt into a costume as Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy.

BitTorrent and other means of downloading large files enable me to download advance copies of tv shows. My kids saw HSM2 before everyone else in town. Major cool factor. We also watch new Hannah Montana episodes on YouTube when they air in the UK or Australia but not here yet.

I have an e-friend who is a pediatrician, and being able to IM her has freed me from the annoyance of calling the pedi off-hours.

Cell phones mean that when we go to Disney (in approximately 25 hours!!!) I can write our cell #s on our kids' arms and know that if we lose them, it won't be for long.

[Alison]

The web provides a plethora of educational resources, useful to everyone, and also making homeschooling more accessible to more people.

[RCinProv]

Correction: knowing where the pervs who have already-been-apprehended-and-convicted-once are. Big difference.

[timna]

What about knowing what your child had for lunch? I'm not sure I want to know, but we have that kind of access and information. Lunch money deducted automatically from bank account.