“What shall we do now Mummy?” Claire, my six-year-old daughter asked.
“ Yes, what shall we do now?” Her brother Andrew asked.
“I know” I said, let’s Skype Granny, and ask her what she use to do when she was a little girl.”
“Boring” stated Andrew, “ it will all be girls stuff anyway.”
“Okay, well let Claire ask Granny and you ask Grandpa.”
Pleased with myself for remembering things from my childhood that did not include the use of computers, I eagerly awaited my parents’ response.
The answer was not what I had expected or hoped for.
“Granny told us to watch “You Tube.” I grabbed the laptop off my son and sort clarification.
“Mum, I am trying to wean them off their computers, not use them more. I wanted you to tell them about what you did for entertainment in the good old days, before computers and mobile phones were invented.”
“Remember those dancing paper dollies you used to love, well all the tutorials are on You Tube. You used to spend hours cutting them out of newspaper. You can use the same method to cut other things out, even dinosaurs.”
“I see, my mum knows more about computers than I do,” I laughed.
“There are lessons in just about everything, give it a go, you will not be disappointed, hours of entertainment at your fingertips. Make sure you have lots of craft things ready, I’m addicted to making greeting cards myself.”
“Thanks Mum, I’ll give it a go, anything for a quieter life, give my love to Dad.”
An hour later, Claire had already decided on at least ten projects and she had found an ‘Easy Cooking for Children video”. Andrews list was even longer. It was decided that we would work through each project together so that we could help each other. I was in my element and it felt great creating things with the kids.
We needed a workplace that could stay messy for a few days at a time, so using the dining table was out of the question. We dragged the garden picnic table into the kitchen, and covered it with a plastic cloth. Before starting, I let the kids lose in the attic to have a rummage through the hoard of previously unwanted stuff.
“It’s like a treasure chest!” Claire shouted as she found part rolls of wallpaper, old tins of paint, old cardboard boxes and old clothes ready to take on new lives.
The kids made scrapbooks diaries of their projects. Their imagination’s growing, as they made up their stories. After each project was finished, the kids would Skype Granny and Grandpa and all their friends to show off. Soon, all their friends were watching “You Tube.”
The outcome was the very opposite of what I had initially planned, instead of keeping the kids off their computers, I was drawn into their world and I would not have wanted it any other way. Whoever said that Mum’s know best!
