By the time my kids are all grown up....

Adaline'sMama · Nov 27, 2010

DH and I are always having this conversation about how different we expect things to be by the time our 8 month old and her future siblings are all "grown up". I guess to us that means, by the time they are moving out, making their own desicions about their lives, paying their own bills, ect. It all started when we realized that DD will be the first person of her generation in our family to grow up without a home telephone in the house, she was the first kiddo in our family to be born after the internet was widely used, and the first kid born to a black president, ect. Things have changed so much since I was a little girl, and I think its fun to speculate on the future. Not just technology, but the ideals and lifestyles that will be popular. So, Ill go first:
 
I think my kids will laugh at the idea that we ever had cords that went to our electronic devices. I think pretty much everything will be wireless by the time they grow up.
 
What do you think things will be like when your kids are all grown up?

sahli29 · Nov 27, 2010

I think elecrtic cars will be owned by many, and solar panels on homes will be far more common.
 
More people will have backyard flocks and grow a lot of their own produce! Edible landscaping will be more common.
 
Printed books will become rare.

goodygumdrops · Nov 28, 2010

I like this game...

MusicianDad · Nov 28, 2010

Well I know DD is still confused as to how DH and I managed to haul around walkmans and discmans instead of itty bitty little MP3 players.
 
DS is probably going to wonder why all our older movies and TV on DVDs have a square picture instead of an HD picture. He's gonna learn about the pre-gay marriage days in history, since he was born after that was allowed, and wonder what the heck was wrong with the country before that. He won't know what the heck the negatives are in some of our pre-digital camera picture piles. And he's going to wonder how people ever managed to be interested in video games when all you did was sit there and push buttons.

Arduinna · Nov 28, 2010

LOL I used to have all these ideas of what I'd do but really not much has changed since she grew up. We live our lives basically the same.

Irishmommy · Nov 28, 2010

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by Adaline'sMama <a href="/community/forum/thread/1282025/by-the-time-my-kids-are-all-grown-up#post_16076292"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border-right:0px solid;border-top:0px solid;border-left:0px solid;border-bottom:0px solid;"></a> DD will be the first person of her generation in our family to grow up without a home telephone in the house,
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I was 12 before we ever got a home phone. And it was rotary!

Dar · Nov 28, 2010

My kid will be "all grown up" in 2 months, so I'm doing this backwards... when she was very little I had a typewriter, not a computer. A month or so before she turned two I got a computer and got online for the first time, with a super-slow dialup modem... I remember upgrading to 14.4 baud and being amazed at how quick it was. There were no boards like this, only usenet... which was awesome.... and email lists. 
 
There were carphones but I don't remember cell phones when she was little... we had a cordless home phone. No smart phones, no ipods. No DVDs, only VHS. 
 
Being born to a single mom was more unusual then... I got a lot of flack for having Rain by myself. 
 
There were no online classes, obviously. I took college classes by mail when Rain was little - I would do the assignments and mail them to the teacher by a certain date, and she'd mail them back. The math class had videos, and I remember using my financial aid money to buy a VCR, and then I never watched the videos.

UnschoolnMa · Nov 28, 2010

My kids (19 and 17) are pretty amazed that I managed to ever contact anyone without a cell phone, texting, or the internet. Every time I lament that payphones are disappearing they agree it's kind of inconvenient, but they don't remember the time that they were all over the place. And the "boom boxes" my friends and I hauled to the park in the 80's? My daughter is horrified.<img alt="disappointed.gif" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/disappointed.gif">
 
My kids were born in 91 and 93, so they basically grew up with all of that expanding technology. My son is my tech guy.

earthmama369 · Nov 28, 2010

When I was a kid, we had a small black and white TV with an antenna that received two channels, no cable, a rotary phone with a party line that we shared with the other 7 houses on the street, and when I got older and had sleepovers, we used to rent a VCR from the video rental store for the night. I used a typewriter or hand wrote my papers for school up until college. We heated our house with a wood stove most of the time, used well water, and grew a lot of our food. I only ate homemade bread and desserts at home until I was about 10. I used a computer for the first time when I was 18 and in college (1995). I'm only 33, and my childhood was different than many of my friends', technology-wise, and that makes the gap between myself and my children wider than the norm for this generation, but it also means my children will be experiencing some things that many of their peers won't.
 
I expect that my children will grow up without any understanding of a rotary phone or a party line, or life without color TV. They will grow up in a world of instantaneous communication, where the ability to make a phone call, text, or e-mail a friend comes with you wherever you go, unless you're in the rare patch of "no service," which will be an oddity to them, and maybe a little threatening. Computers will be comfortable and familiar and they will be able to do far more with them than I ever will, and it will feel natural and normal. Banking, reading, and socializing will largely be done via computer. However, I also expect that they will spend copious amounts of time outdoors as they grow up, and by the time they're adults, they will know how to maintain a basic kitchen garden and preserve the food that comes out of it. They'll be able to start a campfire and set up a tent.

UnschoolnMa · Nov 28, 2010

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<div>They will grow up in a world of instantaneous communication, where the ability to make a phone call, text, or e-mail a friend comes with you wherever you go, unless you're in the rare patch of "no service," which will be an oddity to them, and maybe a little threatening.</div>
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I saw this scenario play out once actually. We were at a family pizza birthday party and my neice, 9, was there. She was using my brother's fancypants tiny computer phone thing (no clue what kind lol) and she kept walking around with it. She seemed frustrated and someone asked her what was up. "What's wrong with this restaurant? I can't get any signal here!" The idea that there were places without connectivity was totally foreign to her! lol <img alt="shrug.gif" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/shrug.gif">

shayinme · Nov 28, 2010

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by Dar <a href="/community/forum/thread/1282025/by-the-time-my-kids-are-all-grown-up#post_16077392"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a> My kid will be "all grown up" in 2 months, so I'm doing this backwards... when she was very little I had a typewriter, not a computer. A month or so before she turned two I got a computer and got online for the first time, with a super-slow dialup modem... I remember upgrading to 14.4 baud and being amazed at how quick it was. There were no boards like this, only usenet... which was awesome.... and email lists. 
 
There were carphones but I don't remember cell phones when she was little... we had a cordless home phone. No smart phones, no ipods. No DVDs, only VHS. 
 
Being born to a single mom was more unusual then... I got a lot of flack for having Rain by myself. 
 
There were no online classes, obviously. I took college classes by mail when Rain was little - I would do the assignments and mail them to the teacher by a certain date, and she'd mail them back. The math class had videos, and I remember using my financial aid money to buy a VCR, and then I never watched the videos. 
 
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 <div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by UnschoolnMa <a href="/community/forum/thread/1282025/by-the-time-my-kids-are-all-grown-up#post_16077512"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a> My kids (19 and 17) are pretty amazed that I managed to ever contact anyone without a cell phone, texting, or the internet. Every time I lament that payphones are disappearing they agree it's kind of inconvenient, but they don't remember the time that they were all over the place. And the "boom boxes" my friends and I hauled to the park in the 80's? My daughter is horrified.<img alt="disappointed.gif" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/disappointed.gif">
 
My kids were born in 91 and 93, so they basically grew up with all of that expanding technology. My son is my tech guy.
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I am in the same boat as you guys, my son was born in 92 so he is all grown up for practical purposes. I do however have a 5 year old and her world at 5 is vastly different than my son's was at the same age. I was pretty broke raising my son, so he remembers when we didn't have a VCR or cable, my girl can't even imagine that. I didn't get a computer till my boy was 5 (13 years ago) and in the early years I only did school work on it. Now my little one expects that we can always make videos with our phones. LOL
 
In some ways yes technology has evolved but in many ways things are the same. Granted I remember when pay phones were the norm and recently I had to explain that concept to my little one since she had no idea what it was but at almost 19 my son has occasionally used them.

Breathless Wonder · Nov 28, 2010

Kind of off topic, but the disappearance of pay phones, and over reliance on cell phones is a problem IMO. I worry when I see people on the road side, broken down, because who knows if they have a cell phone, and if they do, whether their cell phone has coverage in that spot! People just assume that other people have it taken care of, or that if they stop to offer assistance, they will get mugged! People as tend to not think before driving in bad weather, thinking they have their cell phone if they should get into trouble.

meemee · Nov 28, 2010

you know i kinda had that surreal experience myself.
 
i dropped out of school and became a SAHM for a while.
 
when i went back things had changed drastically. actually i really felt that. 
 
public pay phones were almost gone from our school. and the few that were there were either broken or rarely used. CD players had been replaced by ipods/mp3 players, the mini tv by a dvd screen playing device. laptops had gotten smaller and lighter and less noisier AND no one at work was really taking talking breaks, but just texting at their pods till the whole no using personal phones became a rule.
 
this was a gap of 5 to 7 years. and it stood out because i had returned to the same school campus and (after a few other jobs) had returned to my old job. 
 
even FOOD had changed. they now have those disgusting frozen pbj sandwiches. to me that is just bizarre. 
 
biggest shock as a mom, too see how many newborn toys now were all about the ABCs. <shiver>

enkmom · Nov 28, 2010

My kids (21 and 20) have trouble believing me when I tell them that one year my big Christmas present was a Texas Instruments calculator which cost $85 now that most calculators are $1 and no one needs them because everyone has one on their phone. They are astonished that stores were closed by 8pm and some were closed on Sundays. And as they listen to their Ipods, I recall dreaming back in the day of a radio station that would play ONLY the songs I liked and I didn't have to listen and hope the next song would be good.
 
As for the future, I wonder if my grandchildren will ever get the pleasure of trick or treating (it seems to die off more and more every year). Will they ever mail a bill, now that you can pay nearly everything online? How much longer will there be brick and mortar schools as more and more people go online and computers keep coming down in price?

anj_rn · Nov 28, 2010

My kids will be surprised that I actually wrote my DH letters (on paper) when I went away for college (we got email the next year, but he still has all those letters). That we had no cell phones/texting when we were in college, so we SCHEDULED our long distance phone calls. I am sure there are others. My son just last night learned that there was TV with commercials (we do not have cable and only do DVDs or downloaded movies/shows at home). He was watching a show at MILs and kept asking why there were commercials and why we could not skip them.

meemee · Nov 28, 2010

oh one other thing that makes me laugh. the other day i went to a talk where there were over 150 people - mostly students. and the speaker, perhaps in his 40's asked if anyone had a digital watch (he wanted a stop watch to time his speech). there was pin. drop. silence. everyone was looking around. finally someone offered to use the stop watch on their phone. <img alt="twins.gif" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/twins.gif">

MusicianDad · Nov 28, 2010

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by enkmom <a href="/community/forum/thread/1282025/by-the-time-my-kids-are-all-grown-up#post_16077793"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a> I recall dreaming back in the day of a radio station that would play ONLY the songs I liked and I didn't have to listen and hope the next song would be good.
 
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 That must have been back when people actually needed to have talent to make it big in the music industry. I miss those times too even though I was never alive then.

KristyDi · Nov 28, 2010

Lots more things will work on a touch screen basis.
 
The other evening we were watching Netflix on our TV with the Wii. DD kept trying to push the buttons on the screen and was frustrated when it didn't work. She can navigate our touch screen phones and open and play with "her" apps with no problem.
 
ETA DD is 2.5

physmom · Nov 29, 2010

Fun idea!
 
When DD grows up...
 
- She'll have a hard time remembering a time when she didn't have her own laptop and knew how to program
 
- She'll think it's funny when people don't speak a second language
 
- She'll think cars are just for weekend trips because everyone takes public transit (ok, I know this probably has more to do with where we live, though...)
 
- She'll never know a time where becoming the president as a minority seemed like an unsurmountable barrier.
 
- She probably won't know how to change the TV channel without a remote (actually most adults I know rarely do this...)
 
- She'll think formula is a thing of the past since wet nurses will make a comeback!

Ok, I have a feeling that will take more than 16 years in the US, if ever...
 
- She'll think books made out of paper are just for babies that can't operate some sort of e-reader.
 
- She'll probably think her parents are crazy but hopefully still have a wonderful relationship with them!

Mama2Bug · Nov 29, 2010

My DD is almost 6. By the time she's my age (33), I imagine:
 
-She will be shocked by how much waste there used to be. Nearly everything produced at that time will be easily recycled/biodegradable.
-People will very rarely buy new vehicles and families with more than one will be unheard of, due to the price of gasoline.
-There will be no such thing as a "middle class."
-The US will no longer be THE world's superpower but will share that position with one or more countries.
-You will need a passport in the same way that we now need driver's licenses/govt. IDs.
-Health records will be fully digital.
-Travel by air will be prohibitively expensive to most people.
-Kitchen gardens will once again be common.
-Racism will be largely overcome, but classism will increase.
-Multi-generational living situations, while still not the norm, will be much more common.

By the time my kids are all grown up....

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