Wandering and sitting on the pier at Davis Bay is often a great experience. At this time of the year tourists are drawn to our part of the world like bees to honey. I love watching the fishermen and crabbers. There’s a place where people dive in a dizzying drop into the deep ocean, and there’s a buzz of folks just talking, laughing, and generally enjoying the scene.
Yesterday my attention was caught by a very cute little boy, running around and testing the anxiety levels of his mother. |
This really made me think. There’s a new kind of happiness out there now. Tech happiness.
- team-working Traditionalists, Great Depression survivors, born up to 1946. They're also known as the silent, uncomplaining generation.
- disciplined, hard working, self assured Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
- X generation (1965-1976). These were the first latch key kids, raised to be self reliant, and often learning to live in divorced families, as they become more in number.
- Y generation, often known as the Millennials, or “me” crowd(1977-1995). These are the next parents, of the next generation.
- and now, thanks to the latter and their obsession with technology, a new generation is rapidly emerging - the Centennials screen generation, born after 1996. Seems like they're the Z generation. With the technology savvy and self expectations of their parents they will have lives unlike anything ever imagined by most folks in the past.
Newborns need sleep--lots of it!
Problem solved. Let's go no further with this!
Babies need to be fed
After all you may be busy working out on the treadmill in your parents basement, or there may be countless other things that you need to do for yourself. Besides, no one ever thought to have you hold an actual infant and get experience on how to feed her!
...and held by something
...and supervised, even remotely
It was strictly hands on. The child soon learned his important role in the scheme of things too, giving vent to various cries for his needs that parents learned to interpret. Now parents have WIFI monitors, some of which give constant data on the child’s vital signs. Parents can monitor from afar, feeling confident that all is well with little Joey.
How about the ugly business of toilet training?
There’s only one drawback to this. How does your child actually know when to go? Well, it just so happens you can get an electronic alarm that fits on the toddler’s diaper. You just set it, and the child then knows either to get to the potty, or tell you she has to go.
How do you keep your child quiet when shopping?
Stats and thoughts
Admittedly, if you were to use all these wonderful knick knacks, you'd better be moderately wealthy, but anyone knows the US Department of Agriculture (huh?) estimated that raising a child born in 2013 is going to cost an average of $304,480 by the time that child is 18 years old. So, obviously, nothing is too good or expensive for that precious little bundle of joy.
If this is correct, obviously not everyone is wealthy enough, or many times knowledgeable enough to actually raise one child, let alone multiples. But they do. Every child has a different upbringing, unique because of their genetics, and their culture, plus their economic status.
So, if a child does not have the advantage of all the latest parental conveniences, does this mean he/she is disadvantaged in life?
I've been fascinated to see the thirst for basic education, the joy and curiosity, the respect for elders and parents, that is almost a worldwide hallmark of children labeled as very poor. Without access to electronics, they devise ways to learn with just rudimentary equipment from nature; to cope with hunger and to appreciate the smallest gestures of a hand up in life. If they do get that helping hand they seem to move forward with great success and determination. In future this may be a better way of judging advantage over disadvantage.
Do I appreciate this because there are echoes of a long lost generation I remember?
What memories will these Z kids have of their childhoods when they grow up? I can’t help wondering what the future will bring.