No Thanks, Snail Mail!

One of Lindsey's best friends, Julia, moved to Maryland yesterday.  (This is the little blonde girl in the iLindsey videos.)  I'm going to miss this little girl because she is one of Lindsey’s best playmates.  They always used their imaginations and behaved like 10-year-old girls; they didn’t attempt to impersonate teenagers.  Lindsey has some friends that think they’re too old to play with dolls, act silly, etc.  It drives me nuts.  Little girls should act like little girls.   Also, Julia and Lindsey always entertained themselves.  They never plopped down on the couch and said “We’re bored, entertain us!”  I hate that.  I have enough to do without telling a 10-year-old how to play.  

Julia spent the night on Sunday and we brought her back right before the moving truck pulled away.  The girls said that they aren’t going to be old-school pen pals; they’ll just email each other because it’s much faster.  Julia said “It’ll take like FOUR DAYS to send her a letter from Maryland!”  I laughed and tried to convince them that it’s fun to buy stationary and write a letter.  I told them that it’s even better discovering a letter in the mailbox, but they both turned their noses up at the idea of snail mail.  I’m telling you, Instant Gratification should be named the 8^th Deadly Sin. 

I could go on and on about how different kids are nowadays, but I’ll spare you.  We all know that it’s different and we know why.  Things have changed dramatically, and it’s our fault for not regulating amongst the changes.  For one thing, we are too paranoid that they’ll be kidnapped, so they don’t play outside like we did when we were young.  We have the nerve to moan and groan about how kids are hooked up to some kind of electronic device in the house, but we’re the ones purchasing them.  Kids expect things to work instantly because we have TiVo and other devices that bypass through the crap that we had to endure as children.  Why wouldn’t they be impatient and freak out if there’s a commercial that they can’t fast-forward though if that’s all they’ve ever known?  Remember what you did when your old, grey Nintendo didn’t work?  You’d instinctively blow into the game and pop it back in.  My kids would probably toss it out the window or take it back to the store immediately.  Why didn’t we do that?  Why did we all settle for a machine that seemed to be across the board, defective?  Because we had patience and didn’t expect everything to work the way things do now.  Don and I were talking a couple of nights ago about how much it sucked to have to use the TV Guide channel.  Never failed, as SOON as you would get close to the channel you were seeking, you’d look away or leave for a second—come back and OHHHHHH, your channel had just passed and you’d have to start over.  It took forever too! 

I’m not asking for a lot.  I accept that things are different—I just want my daughter to know how to address an envelope.  That’s all. 

Showing off the friendship bracelets they made.....

They're definitely theatrical.....

Here's the Word of the Day:

poltroon \pol-TROON\, noun:

1. A wretched coward; craven.

adjective:
1. Marked by utter cowardice.