What My Kids Have Taught Me
What I Have Learned from My Kids
I am speaking of my adult children not little ones (of course you can learn from the little ones too). Colin is our tech kid. Although we exposed him to computers and more specifically computer graphics back in 1985, he took off with it and is making a career with his knowledge. He does not let us sit back on what we already know he presents us with attainable challenges. He believed (and he was right) that his dad could expand his commercial design business by creating websites. He was there for those emergency phone calls when Michael ran into what seemed to be brick walls. If Colin didn’t know off the top of his tech head he researched it until he found an answer. Michael taught Colin how to ride a bike, Colin taught his Dad how to ride the web and stay on without falling off. And he challenged me to create a blog. It seemed daunting at first but I got the hang of it and now I have four blogs under my belt.
Kim is on the forefront of what is new in the world of trends in decorating, food etc being a Consumer Science Teacher (former known as Home Ec). She sent us home with Rachael Ray magazine this time around. Although on my own I would never become stodgy my kids give me a short cut to staying fresh. They send me to YouTube for their faves. And honestly I want to know about their world like when they were young I asked them me to tell me the good news and the bad. Sometimes it comes in the form of phone call (Kim is more about the phone) but often for Colin it comes as a Twitter.
Oh sure we could sit in our rockers and listen to the nostalgic strains of Bob Dylan, the Band and Janis Joplin but why get stuck. Both Kim and Colin share with us what they are listening to on their ipods. Thanks to Colin we all have ipods. Kim, Colin & Nifer (daughter in law) have introduced us to musicians like Bonobo, M Ward, Regina Spektor and Nora Jones. They are now on our playlist along with some Irish music we started to listen to after visiting Ireland. (Not the American Irish songs.) Not that I completely lean on them for all the new stuff. I strike out on my own after I hear something at the Tavern or on a podcast. But I wouldn’t even think about podcast if it weren’t for Colin.
Kim, Colin and Nifer are all Urbanites. We enjoy the goings on in their cities, Colin & Nifer in San Francisco and Kim in Tulsa. Kim took us on a tour of the gorgeous old neighborhoods of Tulsa this weekend, loved it. The Swan Lake area was perfect for a Saturday walk and eating at the Blue Dome Diner capped off a pleasant day out. And although it has been several years since we visit San Francisco we were treated to a marvelous week of exploration planned out by Nifer.
What I continue to learn from the kids is what we shared with them when they were little ones paid off much more than we would ever have expected. I really believe in my kids and am ready to learn from others of their generation. I say if you’re a member of the baby boom generation (or older) and you haven’t tried to learn from 20 and 30 somethings you deserve to rust!
This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Philosophy. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Love you mom