Annabel was in a stroller back when I bought my laptop, and I remember the sales guy saying to me, “You should buy the warranty, because kids have a way of screwing up technology.” I remember saying, “Oh, I’ll never let my kids use my tech!” Oh, younger Heather. So innocent and stupid. Now my kids pounce on my phone or computer whenever I’m dumb enough to leave them unattended, although they still do plenty of damage when we allow them to use our tech, like:
~Tweet game scores:
Hahahaha, James always does this to Mike and it cracks me up.
~Tweet YouTube links:
Of course, then James does this to me, so I guess that’s what I get for laughing.
~Text gibberish:
I have a feeling this was a team effort between Annabel and James, because she recently discovered emojis.
~Close incoming text messages
This is the worst! Annabel now knows to tell me if something pops up on the screen, but James…not so much. I’ve watched him hit the “close” button, that little poop.
~They delete your apps
And you have no idea until you need that app.
~OR they move them around:
This makes me crazy because I organize my apps by type, and then alphabetically SHUT UP.
~Lose phone
I have a landline so I can call my phone when my kids lose it.
~They add “id’fohviqerh iso” into the middle of your work when you leave your computer unattended:
AND MIKE NEVER NOTICED UNTIL I TOLD HIM AFTER IT WAS PUBLISHED LOL FOREVER.
Take a million photos:
The selfie game is strong with this one.
samatwitch says:
I don’t have kids but my cat has posted on Facebook, in messages to my friend, and opens applications on my PC that I didn’t even know I had! She once scared herself by opening the DVD drawer.
RzDrms says:
I work in I.T., and I understood less than half of this post! Took me three reads before I think I now get what each means, although I still don’t know who “he” is who never noticed in the “Betsy” article. It’s also 6:00am, so that’s not helping me either.
Lenora says:
Mike never noticed that one of the kids put gibberish in the middle of one of his articles until after it was published.
RzDrms says:
Ah, thanks!
Peggy says:
My children find it hysterical to change my Siri. Last week “she” was a British man. This week, she’s a British woman. And I swear that British Siri — whether male or female — does not understand me as well, so I end up being that lady in the car next to you yelling obscenities at her phone because Siri now refuses to understand “TURN OFF BLUE TOOTH!”
Jen says:
Sounds like you need a kid lid! Thankfully, my little dude only goes after the iPad (and we can give him an old one we no longer use) … but if he tried to get on my laptop, I’d be all over these things: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1258464148/kid-lid
Amy says:
I have felt your pain and discovered some of these things are preventable. If you have an iPhone, you can set preferences to not delete apps. I think it can lock apps in place, too. Or set the passcode or fingerprint ID.
We also gave our kids our old phones when we upgraded. We loaded the phones with games, locked things so they could not delete apps or purchase new ones, and disabled the Internet browser. They can’t send txts or make calls either since their phones are not on a provider network. They use them for long car rides, doctor appointment waits, etc.
Erin says:
Annie’s selfies look a lot like the ones I find on my phone after a night out with friends.
Anna says:
This cracked me up!
Callie says:
I have learned to not leave mine out with my high school students. I now have a picture of a rock and about 20 selfies of my 5th period class. That class will also close out all my stuff on my computer so they can play games without asking me. So it doesn’t get better as they get older.
Jordan says:
So funny, especially the selfies and gibberish texts!
Also: SO GLAD to know I’m not the only weird one that organizes her apps by type and ABC order. It saves my sanity!
MH says:
My favorite was when my son texted my boyfriend and said “I just farted”. He was like “Ok, thanks for telling me”. Then I see – “oh yeah, this is Alex”.
I died laughing!!!!
The selfies is soooo true!!! But they do grow out of that. Wait until she starts taking pictures of James butt (in clothing hopefully, but you never know). I went through that stage too.
Kate says:
In re: the selfies: my BFF is a high school teacher, and occasionally, she will open up her phone after school and find a dozen-plus selfies waiting for her because one of her kids grabbed her phone off her desk and decided to do a little photo shoot (since the only thing you can really access when it’s locked is the camera). One of the first times, the selfie count was in the 100s!
It’s clearly all in good fun and bestie doesn’t care, but all I could think reading this is: they never grow out of the selfies.
Annalisa says:
The above is why we have password locks on all media/electronics.