Heaven Help Me!

Gone are the days when Mom or Dad could send a kid outside for hours on end, telling them, “See you for dinner!”

Today’s kids are way too technologically advanced to even think about it.

Being connected, sometimes literally, to all sorts of  ”devices” makes it hard for kids to get away from their parents. Well, for safety reasons, these days that’s probably not a bad idea.

However, once in a while, there’s the parent that needs a couple quiet hours who would appreciate some time away from their kids. As in my case tonight, husband and I sent the kids downstairs to play in the basement for a couple hours of R & R.

I would have loved to have a basement when I was growing up like my kids have! With its indoor playground features, and multiple spaces to curl up and read a book or do art projects, I couldn’t conceive they’d get bored down there.

Until I turned on my computer to work on lesson plans, when suddenly I noticed my daughter was “online” and apparently ready to come upstairs.

“Hi Mom, we’re hungry”, her text message said.

So, thanks to today’s technology, parents and kids are not quite as inaccessible to one another as they used to be. Remember life before answering machine and cell phones?

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Some years ago, my husband was inspired by G.K. Chesterton’s metaphysical thriller The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, to adopt a new code of  names amongst our family members to settle our nightly chaos resulting from the ritual question “what should we do together as a family tonight?”. While our former system used to end in several children in tears or frustrated that no one ever wanted to do what they do, the new system solved the problem by assigning each person a “night” of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, etc. depending on the childrens’ birth order), in which the assigned child gets to pick the family activity which everyone participates in. The most popular choices are watching movies or playing video games, however, occasionally we do something different like we did tonight for “Tuesday’s” (Clare’s) night: Blue Light Chemiluminescence experiments.

A cheap kit purchased at our local American Science & Surplus shop (in addition, a good site to visit for some comic relief) provided hours of entertainment tonight. A little more advanced than our ordinary kitchen science (like Gianna’s adding vinegar to the juice remaining after boiling a head of red cabbage, producing a color chemical change: purple to blue), this kit used “real” chemistry to produce its results.

Do you know what you get by mixing Luminol, Perborate (Clorox 2) and Copper Sulfate? Lights off for a cool blue glow! This isn’t me – but this is what chemiluminescence looks like. The kids enjoyed the experiments and are glad they now know where “glow sticks” come from.

Hopefully, there’ll be more experiments to come!

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With the advent of new technology, comes new trends, and sometimes a need for new guidelines and etiquette. As I was out shopping over the weekend, I noticed, much more than ever before, people talking on cell phones while shopping. Now this is not a problem, as long as the folks with appendages stuck to their ears keep walking. But it does become a problem when cellphoners have not yet mastered the art of multitasking, and instead of keeping up the pace, just “stall” multiple times in the middle of the shopping aisle!  It also poses a problem when people gabbing on phones park themselves and their cart so as to block other shoppers from getting through the lane, and since they are gabbing away on a cellphone, they don’t notice others politely saying, “Excuse me. Can you move your cart and your body so I can get through?” Puleeeeze! Some of us shoppers are in a minor hurry, since my dear husband is at home watching all the children, so I can do my shopping more efficiently (without 15 minute bathroom breaks, drink breaks, and/or “can we go home yet?” breaks).  And… I… would… like… to… get… home…. QUICKLY! to make sure no one has set the house on fire yet.  I suppose it was just “bad luck” or God trying to teach me to be patient, I don’t know… or unbeknowst to me, was it National “Talk On Your Cellphone While At Target”  Day?

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Abt Electronics

Bosch Evolution 500 Series 24″ White Undercounter Dishwasher – SHE45M02WH/ Two-Pump Motor System/ Suspension Motor/ Five Level Wash/ Flow Through Water Heater/ Multi-Function LED/ Condensation Drying/ AQUASTOP Leak Protection/ 4 Wash Cycles/ Optional Half Load Wash/ 14 Place Settings/ White Fi…

Bosch Evolution 500 Series 24″ White Undercounter Dishwasher

Better than past dishwashers I’ve owned!

ChiChristine Chicago, IL 6/1/2009

5 5

Pros: Cleans Well

Cons: Awkward Loading, Doesn’t Dry Well

Best Uses: General Purpose

Describe Yourself: Casual Cook

We have large family and needed a dishwasher that could handle the amount of dishes we use. We run it several times daily. It has been installed for three weeks, and so far I don’t have a single complaint. Most importantly, as long as you scrape the plates of large food particles, it gets the dishes clean and does not leave any residue on them. It is also energy efficient, quiet, and has simple controls. If it keeps this up, I will recommend it to EVERYONE as the best dishwasher money can buy!

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****UPDATE: July 6, 2009 – This dishwasher continues to be the best thing since sliced bread! Really, it is worth every penny! I have had spotless dishes ever since I bought it;  the “awkward loading” isn’t so awkward anymore, and  “doesn’t dry well”  isn’t too noticeable to me anymore. Considering the dishes are so clean, I don’t have to re-wash them, I really don’t give a rip about a little water left on top of the glasses!

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Attention: I now only respond to requests which address me in binary code. My name is: 01000011 01101000 01110010 01101001 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100101.

And the version for my children:

01001101 01101111 01101101 01101101 01111001

You can do the same here.

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There is not a single word that I did not thoroughly relate to in Pope Benedict XVI’s Message for the 43rd World Day of Communications. When I was younger, I couldn’t imagine that the Pope had anything relevant to say. Pope Benedict XVI is finely “in tune” with the issues of our current age, and speaks of technology as a vehicle for friendship and good.

Don’t miss it!

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