Deprived (Or Not)

This morning during breakfast Alyssa announced that at least half the kids on her bus have I-pods/I-pads. She said disgustedly, “There’s one first grader who has an I-pad!”

Tom and I shared a smile.

Alyssa does not have a cell phone, she doesn’t have an I-pod nor does she have an I-pad. She doesn’t need these things.

We have two computers in our house, one for Tom’s work and the other for the rest of us to play Candy Crush (okay, only I play that…)

We don’t have cable or satellite television. We have two televisions that get whatever channels are broadcast and received via antennas. These televisions are in the family room and the living room, not in the bedrooms.

We also have dvd players hooked up to each television and we have a boatload of dvds, so even though Alyssa obviously feels deprived, she isn’t.

We remind her quite often that at ten years old, she doesn’t need all those electronic devices out there. She doesn’t need a cell phone, she doesn’t need an I-pod, she doesn’t need a television in her room or a laptop to take everywhere.

But wow, does she want these things.

I am in no way saying that parents who choose to provide their children with the above mentioned (and/or those that I forgot to mention) are doing anything wrong. Not at all. It’s just not a choice our family has made. We watch plenty of television through ABC, NBC and CBS, we don’t need more choices. The fact that my phone doesn’t have any fun games works for me. It means my battery isn’t sucked dry during a twenty minute drive to town with Alyssa.
Being a little electronically deprived is good for us as a family. Though…I’d be pretty sad if anyone took away my Candy Crush.