Mobile Phones for Children

Yesterday my 5-year-old granddaughter got a smartwatch with a phone built into it. She can only use it to communicate with a very small number of people. Naturally my wife and I are on that list and we have each received no less than 5 phone calls in the past 12 hours. While some might be bothered by so many calls, my wife and I love it as we enjoy speaking with any of our grand kids.

My son got the watch for his daughter to help locate her while playing with friends. she is very socially active and her parents often have a hard time finding her when it is time to come home for dinner. That is the primary reason she has the device and I agree with his thinking.

My slightly older grandson also has a similar smartwatch and he behaved the same when he got it. He wore it constantly and sent me voice messages all the time. Then he discovered he needs to charge the device and it often had a dead battery. Eventually I stopped getting messages from him and he stopped wearing the device. It became an unreliable way for me to contact him. Now that his sister has a smartwatch, they have been competing with each other to contact my wife and me. My hope is that with two of them having devices, we will have a great way to contact our grand kids.

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and mobile phones became ubiquitous, I set 15 as the age for my kids before they got their first mobile phone. I wanted them to have practice using one before they started driving. That way if something happened in the car, a child could reach Mom or Dad. Now mobile phones have evolved to contain a lot more functionality including cameras, location data via GPS, and a number useful applications. It makes more sense to lower the age I originally set but still am not sure what that age should be. Fortunately I don't have any young children as my oldest is almost 30 and has kids of his own. Ultimately I don't think there is a specific age that works for everyone as I prefer to look at maturity. Not all 5-year olds are created equal and some will do well with a smartwatch while others won't. I'm interested in your thoughts so feel free to leave a comment. Others may appreciate your advice as well.

Entertaining an Infant

Yesterday I had the chance to bring my grandson from Utah to California on my weekly commute. He spent the week splitting time between both his maternal and paternal grandparents while his mom and dad vacationed in Europe. As my grandson is only 15-months old, I didn't need to pay any extra airfare to bring him with me.

As a frequent flyer, I know it can be a huge annoyance when someone brings an unruly child on the flight. I always pack earplugs just in case there is a noisy kid sitting close by. I didn't want to subject my fellow travelers to a screaming toddler, especially since we were sitting in First Class. Unfortunately the flight didn't start out too well. I had to wake my grandson up early so we could catch our flight. That made him a little grumpy. We got on the plane and he kept making a lot of noise. Not nice noises but screaming noises. The kind that annoy everyone. I started to worry that my fellow passengers would throw us off if I didn't come up with a way to quiet him down.

My son and his wife had sent us a number of videos throughout their trip and we tried to reciprocate by sending videos of their son. To quiet the upset toddler, I pulled out my phone and started showing him videos of his dad. That helped a bit and then I started a 20-second video where my grandson wanders around the living room and then falls on his bum. For some strange reason, the little boy loved watching the video of himself falling down. He would laugh every time. We watched the video 30 to 40 times before the flight even left the ground. Each time, my grandson would laugh hysterically watching himself stumble. We watched it so many times I grew afraid that we would chew through my phone's battery before we landed in San Francisco.

After about the 40th time of watching the video, the plane started rolling down the runway and we climbed into the air. We had a bit of turbulence all the way to 39,000 feet and that gently rocked my grandson to sleep. He then slept the entire flight.

If you find yourself preparing for a long flight with a toddler, you might want to take a few videos of the child before heading to the airport. Hopefully you find one that makes the kid laugh. It may help keep your fellow passengers from asking you to ride on the wing.

A Different Kind of Christmas List

Every year at the beginning of December I try to compile a list of Christmas gifts that I would like to receive. Most of the time I try to keep the ideas centered around technology items. This year I am going to do something a little different. While I enjoy gifts as much as anyone, I have come to the conclusion that anything that I can buy, I will get for myself even if it is not Christmas or my birthday. In thinking about this Holiday season, these are gifts that don't cost anything but things that I want anyways.

My children to be successful - Most of the time parents think they want their kids to be happy when what they really want is for them to be successful. Happiness should be a by product of that success, not the main focus. Unfortunately that means children need some growing experiences and that can be hard to watch. The end result is well worth it. This past year I have spent a lot of time with my oldest son working on a 1996 Jeep Cherokee. We have rebuilt the upper half of the engine, replaced a number of sensors, replaced the exhaust, and turned a beat-up old car into something much more reliable. It has not been an easy journey, but now my son has the skills he needs to diagnose most car problems. I think I can call that a success and the joy we felt when we were done far outweighs any of the pain felt along the way.

My wife to feel loved - I have to be honest in saying that my wife does not like being alone as much as she is. I spend four days a week away from home and I know she gets lonely a lot. I try to make it up to her as best I can but circumstances make being together all of the time impossible. My wife and I are not alone. There are a number of other spouses out there that travel as much or more than I do. My wife is a huge support to me as I try to further myself in my career and do something that I think matters. I appreciate her for that and I hope she knows and feels that she is loved.

My kids to know I am proud of them - Sometimes we push our children to be successful and they may think that they don't live up to our expectations. I am very proud of the accomplishments of my kids and I hope they know that.

There are a number of other non-material things I could ask for this Christmas but the reality is that they don't really matter. If you have a good family where everyone tries their best and forgives any other shortcomings, then you have everything you need for Christmas. May you have a great Holiday season.

The PS4 is Coming

This Friday the PlayStation 4 will be released. I am a PlayStation fan and so it is hard for me to gauge how big this release is going to be. I am wondering if there will be lines around the block Thursday evening with people waiting for units to go on sale at midnight or if nobody will care. I know large number of consoles have been presold before this weekend and Sony believes they are going to sell 5 million units before the end of March. Will that happen or is Sony as overly optimistic as I am?

Smartphones and tablets have changed the gaming industry. Why tether yourself to your TV when you can take a tablet and go anywhere to play games? I work at a video game company, yet I spend a lot of time playing a simple game on my iPhone. Do consoles gaming systems really matter any more?

I will have my new PlayStation 4 on Friday morning and my 17-year-old son has invited a lot of his buddies over that night to play games at our house. We will set up both of our PlayStation 3 consoles in another room to give others a chance to sample our extensive game library and connect the PS4 to our 60-inch flat screen coupled to our THX certified sound system. We will probably crank up the sub woofer so loud we will need to replace windows Saturday morning. I plan to be a fly on the wall Friday night. Only then will I be able to tell if Sony has a success. Stay tuned.