my mom gets an iPad

A few years ago I convinced my parents to update an old PC they had with a new Apple computer.  I was so excited for them when the big shiny white monitor came home.  When the family visited, we now had a computer to use.  Well, sort of.  My dad, though he barely used it, thought the computer was fragile and could easily break.  He didn’t want “the kids messing it up.”  “Every time they go on it I can’t find something,” he’d lament.  And forget when the kids tried to watch a DVD on the computer. My dad would go crazy. “GET THEM OFF MY COMPUTER, “ he’d shout.  “I don’t want them touching it.”

When we tried to explain to my dad that the kids know how to use computers, that they can set up their own accounts and not touch his, it was beyond him.  He would listen, not really comprehend, and every conversation would end with, “I don’t care.  I just don’t want them on it.”

My father learned some basic things, and for a time, even used the computer for online banking.  My mom had no interest though she pretended to. Whenever I offered her a lesson she was always in the middle of cooking, doing laundry, thinking, whatever.   “Yes, I want to learn.  Just not right now,” became her standard response to any offer of computer help.

When the iPad came out, my mom (who is a youthful 82) was intrigued.  My sisters and I all have one, and she was far less intimidated by it than by the computer.

For Mother’s Day this year, my sisters and I gave her an iPad.  She’s thrilled, and promises to learn.

My mom lives on the Cape, in a beautiful section of North Falmouth.  We speak almost daily, and now almost daily I’ll get an email from her.  She is really trying.  Now that she knows not to write her entire message in the subject line, she keeps me up-to-date with her life, though briefly.  Her emails are never more than two sentences.  But she’s learning.

The other day I sent her a link to something and she was very excited to be able to open it.  Links are new to her. Her email back to me said, “This is amazing.”

On the same day Meredith called to tell me how she learned to dismantle an old watch and change its battery by finding instructions on the Internet.  Even when you know what you are doing, and even if you've been doing it for a very long time, the Internet is still amazing.

Like seeing through a child’s eye as they first discover things, its exciting to watch my mom grow accustomed to email and web browsing.  As soon as I teach her how to watch an online video, I will send her the following 30-second clip.  


A daughter is visiting her father and is helping in the kitchen.  She asks, “Tell me dad, how are you managing with the new iPad we gave you for your birthday?”  This is in German but that's all my mom really needs to know.  She'll get the rest, I hope:

http://www.snotr.com/video/8965/