Children of the 21st Century

I have 3 kids, which means there is rarely a night I’m not up with at least one of them some time during the night. Last night my 6-yr-old was in bed with us (and by us, I might as well mean me since my husband has no idea of any nighttime struggles). No matter how many times I pushed my son off me towards the center of the bed, I would wake up 5 min later with a hand in my face. So after this beating I endured in the night, I wasn’t totally functioning this morning. And it took until around 10 AM for me to remember my night-shopping. Did I really buy 40 rolls of washi tape at 2 AM? My emails confirmed this to be true. What could I have been dreaming about that led me to actively seek out this tape? And from multiple shops? And WTF would I do with 40 rolls of washi tape? Luckily my sleep-shopping self was one step ahead of my awake self as I discovered I also purchased a very useful washi-tape-dispenser. What a blessing that exhaustion and stress manifest themselves in these surprising gifts from me to me!…

It was not my proudest moment – but also not all surprising – when one of my youngest’s 1st sentences was “Alexa, play Elmo!” It took Alexa some time to realize what “Wessa pay Ewmo” meant, but now she’s an expert at my toddler’s specific accent…

I’m not sure if this is more troubling than the time my family as eating at an ice cream store in San Diego when my then-2-yr-old said loudly to the shop, “Alexa play Frozen,” as if she was omnipresent and he possessed the power to control the airwaves anywhere he went. I suppose he was not completely off about this…

There are many people who are rightly concerned about the infringement of our privacy these days. And it is unnerving to be chatting with your friends about some product one minute, only to open up Instagram to see it being advertised to you the next. But I must admit, I absolutely LOVE all my targeted ads! How else would I know that I needed a tribal-print cape/blanket? And where would I get tiny upholstered furniture if Instagram wasn’t always 1 step ahead of me, knowing my needs before I do?