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Kids today really aren't that different.
I think I'll change my avatar to a warmer look. I can't even wear short sleeves indoors lately. It's supposed to be warm here. I need to move even further south. Anyway. I saw a post in GD complaining about 6-9 year olds wanting mp3 players and laptop computers instead of Barbies and toy trucks. I was going to reply, but I got distracted and it seems to have died. I was going to ask just what was so wrong about it. Sure, a laptop computer isn't affordable for most families, but that can't stop a kid from wanting it. I wanted a computer like my grandpa's when I was that age, and we actually got one, though slightly more modern than his, a few years later. What can a little kid do with a computer? Computer games. My first computer ran DOS. I played Jill of the Jungle, Hugo's House of Horrors, and dozens of other fun little games on diskettes, mostly purchased from the book store. I don't know if that's what most kids today want out of a computer, but that's always been what I most want. Oh, they could also watch DVDs on them. I know I wasn't still playing with Barbies when I was nine. I got a Nintendo when I was seven. Quite possibly for xmas. I was still playing with Matchbox cars, and the more sophisticated sorts of trucks. Not "little toy trucks." But not nearly so much as before. I played with Barbies sort of like I play the Sims, except I can't manage to run over my Sims with my little toy trucks. They just do that "Look out!" action and move out of the way. I didn't want an mp3 player at that age because I didn't know what it was. There weren't any. I did have a Sony Walkman for cassettes, though. There are many reasonably priced mp3 players. I don't see why it's any more wrong for a kid to want one of those than it was for me to have a Walkman. Kids like music. Kids that age of my parents' and grandparents' generations would have wanted record players and radios. If mp3 players had existed, they would have asked for them instead. Mp3 players and laptops with computer games and DVD players are fine for kids. Who are all these backwards people who were still playing with baby toys when they were nine? My brother hasn't played with little toy trucks for years. In fact, he was never that interested in them. He's been playing video games since he was three. He likes video games and stuffed animals. He would probably like a laptop for computer games, but he hasn't thought of it. He wants a PS3 or Xbox 360 more. I didn't want those things when I was his age. They didn't exist. I wanted a Super Nintendo or a Sega. So there.
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