Technology, from DVD players to the internet, is a hard concept to grasp for most mothers today. Often, they will turn to their children for help and support. However, being the technology guru of the family isn't always an easy job.
Those of us born at the cusp of this information age are used to getting answers instantly. We have grown accustomed to replacing uncle John with the search engine. The internet has actually made me very, shall we say, enthusiastic about manuals. This kind of thinking has to be passed on to our parents if ever they will discover the use of a blog or the deleted scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean.
In general, I find patience to be in short supply. It's easier to teach a child how to search for something than a parent. For instance, my mother has now been learning all about the online world for about two years. Still, she cannot get the difference between the search bar and the address bar. However, each time she calls and tells me the page cannot be found I take a deep breath and walk her through.
The main idea is to teach them how to find out these answers on their own. It's time to release them from the nest, and let them fly out into the big electric technology world. We must also be sympathetic. One of my mother's first questions about her computer was how to turn it off. I almost felt embarrassed to tell her, push the start button.
