Technology

Most people who know me know that I'm not a big believer in technology, especially for kids. Part of it stems from my childhood where I was the last in my class to get anything technology-wise. Also, when I was in college and, for a time, part of the Turquoise movement we shunned a lot of things. Of course it was easier then. It's one thing to shun electric lights in favor of candles in a world with only TVs, radios and telephones. Now, with cellphones and the World Wide Web, it's a lot harder.

Oh, by the way, not only is today the Epiphany, but it's also the first snow in Arlington, Virginia. School is on a two-hour delay and we had more time for opening presents. My children all got the new iPhones. My husband and I have busy schedules and can't always be home when my kids are. My yoga studio, Thanda Yoga Frozen Lotus, is only half a mile away from home (though on the other side of Route 50). 

A number of years ago, my husband and I developed this point system to help keep our kids in line. Once everyone needed a cell phone to keep in touch with us and their friends, we thought we needed some way of keeping the costs in line, just a little bit, to put on the breaks just a little bit. So, what we do, and I think this has worked pretty well, is that each kid starts at zero points and then gets negative points for everything they didn't do, like do their homework on time, those kind of things. They can get positive points too, by doing things ahead of schedule or by helping their brother or sister with their homework or chores. When the new iPhone is released, the negative points are related to the number of days they have to wait from the release date till they can get the upgrade.

This year, well last year, the new iPhone was released but we were so busy that we didn't get around to getting the kids their upgrades. They were all about -20. Sometimes we just average their scores because it's easier on us to make just one trip. For whatever reasons, we didn't get around to it and so we just decided to wait till Epiphany.