Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Vanquishing the Enemy

Chamudi doesn't have any siblings, but he does have a rival for my attention: the laptop.

Working for an internet company from home (as well as having an aggressive email habit) means that Chamudi often finds me sitting somewhere with a computer on my lap. A computer that's he's not allowed to touch, and that necessarily takes my attention away from him.

As he's gotten older, Chamudi's learned how to put the laptop in its place. If he doesn't want me to use it, he just comes up and closes it again and again until I get the message. Or brings me book after book until I voluntarily close it and switch gears.

But sometimes I have a real deadline, and it's non-negotiable. So then I have to take the laptop to higher ground, or another room, and BAM Chamudi has lost...and the laptop has won. Tears (and maternal guilt) inevitably follow.

I know he won't be sorry to see the laptop go when I transition to a traditional office job. I don't think I will either--I'm really looking forward to clearly delineating between playtime, work time, and me time.

And frankly, I'm glad that I won't be able to read Dear Abby or troll Facebook when I should be playing blocks. Like all these new tech devices, my laptop enriches my life, but it sometimes keeps me from actually living it.

So Chamudi, you win. The laptop is out and you're the only apple of my eye.

Long live playtime!

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