Technology and An Only Child

I used to run myself ragged setting up play dates for Jason either at our house, or at a friend's house. Nowadays, I make sure he gets to field trips, social outings, sports team practices, and games on time. He joined the varsity teams mainly for the social interaction and the "bonding time" with his friends. It sure keeps us busy but on the days that he has nothing going on, there is something that he has access to that was not even possible in my generation. He gets to play with his friends online all the time (emphasis on the all the time). Thank goodness for XBOX Live and the Internet. He puts on his headset and he is happily chatting away for hours, strategizing on the best way to defeat the enemy. I sometimes think he would be quite happy to live on the couch for days and have food delivered, specially when a new game just comes out.

Then there is the mobile phone. He does not have unlimited text messaging which has just caught on here in the past few years, but he does have an iPhone with 3G so he is connected all the time. I know if one of his "best buds" is calling based on the ring tone assigned. I am thinking of downloading Loopt on it so I know where he is when I want to. He can always "hide" his status.

There is always that nagging feeling of guilt that perhaps by deciding that we only wanted one child, he was going to grow up with a gaping hole in his life. I am happy that he seems to be perfectly content. While it is true that he sometimes assumes that he is the center of our universe, he does know how to share and has grown up to be a responsible teen. More than being proud about his academic achievements, the fact that he has never had a negative mark on his behavior his entire school life, is cause for celebration. Of course, we have our disagreements, which is a whole other topic for another blog!