Watching your Parents Grow with Technology

Threston and Rebecca Roots are now in a blog post. Another first for technology.

One of the greatest joys as a parent is to watch your children grow. I’m beginning to believe that it’s just as much fun to watch my parents grow.

Like most kids in my generation, I didn’t like my parents. They would always make me do things I didn’t want or like to do. They would be extra critical on things that I felt was done correctly. And most of all, they would inflict discipline far greater than the offense required -- aka, the beatings. 

Now that I’m grown, I better understand their philosophy on parenting and have come to find that, surprisingly, they both have a sense of humor that never surfaced when I was young. 

But even more humorous is to watch these two people, who are in their mid-eighties, navigate today’s technology.

Because they are both blessed with good health, they have maintained a very active lifestyle. They’re very active members of organizations that keep them on the move and surrounded with a variety of great people from all walks of life.

And they both have cell phones.

Dad has got the cell phone thing down. Because he’s often in and out of the house, most folks know to try to reach him on the celly. 

But mom! Her motivation for getting a cell phone is because she never wants to see a long distance call on her home phone bill. She still thinks long distance cost $1 a minute like it did in the 60s, and I can’t convince her that it’s closer to 10 cents a minute today. So, she has a Tracfone to make all her long distance calls. And, I’m the one who has to add the minutes to her phone before they run out.

Don’t try to call her on that Tracfone. She hasn’t quite figured how to answer the cell phone when it rings, and after nearly 6 years, she still hasn’t set up her voicemail.

Dad types a lot of his own reports. He was using a typewriter until word processors came out. That’s where technology needed to stop for him. He thrived with that word processor, but now, with the PC and laptop, it’s not so easy anymore.

I tried to find him a word processor recently but no one make them anymore. I did see one on eBay, but I didn’t think it was a good buy. 

So, I’m the one he calls when he’s having trouble doing a simple task on the PC that the word processor could handle easily. To him, the PC makes everything difficult, and most times he’s right. 

Mom is a master on the combo flat screen TV/DVD player I got them for the kitchen. She pops in her Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry movies while operating the remote like a 12 year old.

Dad prefers to sit in the basement (man den) and enjoy his sports and old school westerns using the Comcast remote like it’s a part of his hand. 

Otherwise, life is rather simple for the two of them. I’m convinced that’s the secret to their longevity.