My 21st Century Mistake

I have been debating for months about the "right time" to let the Tumbleweed start using the computer. More specifically, my computer.

I have friends who let their kids play games on the computer, the school has computers for the kids to use, and even HP advertises with a 4 1/2 year old who uses the computer. So I am sure she could do it.

But do I want her at my desk? No. Do I want her "clicking away" and messing something up on my computer? No. Do I want to share my computer? No. Selfish, I know.

So, this morning I decided to put aside my selfishness, and let her try the computer. She had come running in asking to go to the "Special Agent Oso" website, spouting all of the different things you could do there. I pulled up the show webpage and got her started.

It didn't take long for her to get the hang of completing "Pop-Up Assignments" to trade in for "Digi-Medals". She was moving right along on her own so I let her play and enjoyed time to myself. It was great.

Until it was time to stop. After playing long enough to earn about 20 "Pop-up Points", the Eagle asked her if she wanted to go out & play in the yard. He had been mowing the lawn, but was finished and wanted to take her out while he washed the deck furniture. She didn't want to go, despite begging to go out earlier. In fact, she made such a big stink about getting up from the computer that she ended up in time out.

She has now had computer play taken away for the rest of the day, the rest of the week and for who knows how long after that. While there are numerous educational computer games out there, she proved with her behavior today that she is not ready to play them. Maybe we will revisit it when the weather gets cold again, but she certainly doesn't need to be sitting at the computer on such a beautiful day!