The Coveted iPod

There are things in life that either bring two people close together...or push them apart. The jury is still out on this iPod.

We went tonight to buy the thing. Amelia's fist tightly clutched her semi-hard-earned money. I can't really say hard-earned since 60% of it came from asking her friends to donate to her iPod fund instead of bringing presents to her party, 30% came from family members donating to her iPod fund and a measly 10% came from her actually saving her allowance (which is a result of her completely tasks around the house). Just writing this makes me realize that she probably didn't learn too much about "saving" for a big-ticket item. It didn't really take her that long to get most of it. However, I liked having a birthday party and not coming away with stuff she doesn't really need...or already has.

Anyway. We went to Walmart to take advantage of their iPod sale. In hindsight, Evelyn probably shouldn't have come but it's just so cute how excited she gets when Amelia's excited. It was a quick and easy transaction and Amelia practically floated out of the store. However, poor Evelyn's skip slowly turned to a drag. I hope she was expecting at the last minute I would rescue her from iPod woes by purchasing one for her but I don't think she realized how much it would physically hurt to see Amelia carry out the tiny bag. I feel like this is going to be her life. Looking up to an older sister who gets to do everything before her (flash back to last year's birthday ear-piercing drama). All the way out the store I got to listen to how unfair it was and how I didn't love her and how EVERYONE has one except for her now and on and on and on.

So far we have a few rules:
1. iPod is left downstairs at bedtime.
2. iPod may be played with before 7am in the morning as long as personal scripture study has been done. It may also be played with AFTER all other morning preparations are complete.
3. When friends are over, the iPod is off. Human interaction takes precedent.
4. When someone is trying to speak to you, earphones immediately come out of your ears (I'm debating this whole earphone thing but we'll see how it goes. I feel like she's shut off from the family).
5. I may make new iPod rules as the need arises.

I spent an hour tonight trying to connect it to iTunes and the computer. I want different accounts so that I can get all the kid's music off mine. I made the mistake of putting in her actual age without reading the Terms & Conditions. Turns out you can't have an iTunes account under the age of 13. I think they must flag emails that try because when I went back and changed the date it still wouldn't let me register. So then I had to create a new email and try it all again. Very arduous process (wish that brother of mine lived closer sometimes) but I think we have it all sorted out.

We'll see how this all transpires. Lately I've noticed she's become less moody and I see more of pleasant-happy Amelia (so nice!!) so I hope it will all work. It will depend on how much she tries to push the few rules we have. I don't want it to become the source of consequences or a way to modify behaviour on my part....I'll have to watch that. I hope she shares with her sisters. I hope I don't loose her to technology. I feel like she has gone through a rite of passage, taken a step into adolescence. But, maybe it will be good to have the novelty wear off while all she's really going to do is play games and FaceTime me. There's no sense in trying to hide the girls from all this stuff. It's going to be a large part of their world so they'll need to learn now how to make boundaries for themselves and use it wisely. I'm sure there will be many more posts on this subject.