Mommy, What's a Telephone Booth?

The other day, I was walking with my sons when I gestured to a telephone booth and made some comment.

Imagine my surprise, when my 7 year old, looked at me with a perplexed expression on his face and asked, “Mommy, what’s a telephone booth?”

Aghast, I thought to myself – how could my sonnot know THE favorite clothes changing place of Superman? Or the phone booth / elevator at the end of the long corridor for Agent Maxwell Smart?

The answer came so swiftly, it was astonishing.

My son is a bonafide digital citizen.  He has never used a telephone booth, because smartphones are EVERYWHERE.  And he can swipe with the best of them.

He can toggle between screens.

He can find long-lost cartoon gems, such as Underdog, on a Youtube equipped ipad.

He can leap tall buildings in a single bound.  Oops, got a bit carried away there, but you see my point.

Children today are superheroes and they can do some amazing things.  But like every superhero, they need a side-kick, some back-up, some assistance.  And that’s where we come in.

Parents can help their digital citizens by communication, exchanging and parenting with the common sense tools that we have.  We must be their sounding board, their steady companion in the adventure.  Think of Albert to Batman, or Lois Lane to Superman or Agent 99 to Maxwell Smart.

Now I’m going to go find an episode of ‘Get Smart’ on YouTube so that my son can see a telephone booth.