Will Children be Children?

Yesterday, when I checked my mobile, I noticed that the display had been changed, and the analogue screen saver that I had selected had disappeared. I was in a tizzy, and on an impulse I asked my wife and daughters who had come for the Easter Holidays whether anyone had played with my my mobile. It transpired that my elder daughter, who studies in class nine in Gurgaon had been playing with it although she has her own mobile. I scolded her for having changed the settings in my mobile on an impulse, but then realised later on that I myself as a child had fiddled with my father’s record player! Little do we parents realise that the little things that our children are only repeating what we as children had done long ago! A little bit of mischief might result from harmless curiosity about gadgets, and such exploration shouldn’t be treated harshly! In today’s times of technological advancement, children are exposed to technology which is more advanced than in our times of childhood! Perhaps my anger was the result of  not being able to restore the settings in my mobile easily! No doubt it took me some time to restore the Analogue clock screen saver on the mobile, and it was only I had been able to do so that I sighed with relief! Often we have noticed that children are better able to handle gadgets and their settings. We adults may take time to adapt to the intricate settings of modern gadgets because we are slower in adjusting to newer technology while our children have no problems!! It is clear that we are living in an age of technological advancement where the quantum of knowledge and discoveries and information seems to be doubling and tripling at a faster rate than ever before! That mobile phone or gadget for which we have a sentimental attachment! The mobile phone that we bought six months ago becomes obsolete and outdated! Wi Fi, Android Applications, megapixels and so on have become commonplace among the younger generation. The only concern is lest we and our children are swept away, or overwhelmed by the newer inventions and discoveries!

I guess, we should stop being surprised if our children are more at ease with modern technology. The moot question is, how long will they be able to stay ahead of technology? Perhaps it is just that we have forgotten our own childhood and that we ourselves were way ahead of our own parents in handling gadgets! So, then I guess, children will always be children, and we too were children once upon a time. In fact, there is a child within every adult, and that childhood curiosity is curbed in adults because of inhibitions and the fear of being caught by others and the embarrassment it would cause to us! Now, as a father of two, I realise how my own father would have felt when I played with his record player and probably caused it to malfunction. It used to be thought that girls played only with dolls, but today girls are comfortable with boys’ toys, whether computers, cars, bikes, or any other invention that science and technology can throw at them! In fact I have noticed that my daughters hardly ever play with dolls. They are more interested in the desk top I have left behind in Gurgaon. In fact now they are able to handle printing and scanning with ease, besides working on the computer. Well I guess, we have to accept the fact that our children are here to stay, and they will always try to experiment with that expensive gadget you bought for yourself. You can only take it with grace and pray that they don’t wipe off that expensive software or delete that important message! Forget about using a password at home, after all what do you have to hide from your children and your wife? I am sure these children will always find a way through your password. I guess, children will be children and their mischief and curiosity is after all a sign of growing minds. Just be alert that your children don’t hurt themselves! And of course,  remember to put in a site protection software in your mobile, since a lot of forbidden sites can be accessed through your internet enabled 3 G mobile phone!