My little nephew, all of 3 years old chided me the other day. Apparently, I was supposed to take ‘Tom, the cat’ to the washroom before giving him a belly rub and putting him to sleep. All on a tab. “Oh,” I said in absolute dismay, “I didn’t know how to do that,” I confessed. He gave me that disapproving look and said, “Wait, ok, I will show you.”
As soon as he pressed a button, his tab fired up and ‘Tom, the cat’ showed up. With his inch-long finger, he swiped left and right, tapped gently a few times and Tom had finished his business.
Wow.
All of three.
Kids these days are much smarter than any of us were when we were kids. I remember my mum telling me that if I didn’t arrange my shoes properly, my right foot would also become a left foot. I’d get so scared that I would never leave my shoes in disarray. Tell kids of these days the same thing and they’ll laugh and google the whole thing for you.
Today, kids know how to operate any gadget. They have their own facebook accounts. One of my cousin’s daughter has a whatsapp group on her mother’s phone. Ask her what she does and pat comes the reply that she’s doing ‘group studies’.
Children know everything, They know how to critically evaluate a movie, predict what the next episode of any particular serial will show. They know tips and tricks to make your gadgets work perfectly fine.
They sing, they dance, they are awesome when it comes to extra-curricular activities. Just look at shows like Masterchef Junior. While I was watching this particular series, I was awestruck and spellbound by the kind of plates these little kids managed to dish out. From reciting the Bhagavad Gita to nailing spelling bee contests, we see more children taking part in competitions like these.
If we think one kid is better, there are kids who are better then them.
When I was a kid, my mum would become happy if I could finish my meal on my own.
And these kids, they put me to shame.