Monday 9 July 2012

Tech toys for kiddies or virtual parenting

At my son's 4th birthday this year, I was introduced to a new genre of toys, usually not found in the general neighbourhood market.
Courtesy my brother, I entered the world of interactive tech toys when he gifted my son a talking book. My brother and my sister-in-law have always taken an extra effort in getting an interesting gift for my son. It's another matter that these gifts amuse me more than my son!
The toy comprised story books and an optical reader that would read the words when made to touch them. The gift floored me more than my son. I realised that this Zing's talking book was a perfect gift for Anvay as I hardly get time to read books to him. Being a working mother and that too with a night shift, I could not manage a reading time with my son.
Later, on a deeper thought I wondered how companies were exploiting the new family set up in today’s metros where most of the working parents’ children were spending a majority of their time with maids.
The scenario now in metros or even in smaller cities is different in terms of the kind of family we have. The joint family system has disintegrated, giving way to nuclear family at most of the places. There are many companies trying to make the most out of the situation. A friend told me about a Leapfrog toy that can sing lullabies to babies. And if you want to add more to the songs’ list, you can download them on to the toy from the Leapfrog website.
To some extent, this virtual parenting is a good job, when instead of waiting for someone to read a book the child can have his own reading session and not waste time watching Horrible Henry or Naasamajh Doggy.
This helps me recollect a very interesting episode of my childhood. When I was around 5, my favourite story book was one about a giant turnip and everyday I would make my buas, grandfather and mother read the story to me. But what I don't remember is the number of times I must have coaxed them into reading the book to me. The little girl in the story would be me and my favourite character was her grandfather because I loved my grandfather.
It's another matter that my son's talking book will have just one kind of tone and expression and it will not be able to transport him into Kirit's story world.