I've seen the future

There's nothing like Christmas to get that old bank balance into the red. This year, Santa received long lists of technology demands from my family. And that's before my geeky husband started to think about his wish list.

I must admit I was a little surprised; who would expect a laptop - from Barbie nogal! - to be top of an almost five-year-old little girl's letter to Father Christmas?

Perhaps it's in my princess' genes; after all at the tender age of nine months she managed to get to and delete the My Documents folder on my hubby's laptop. (Luckily she was intercepted before she cleared out the Recycle Bin.)

Or perhaps it's just a sign of the times; our kids will probably never feel comfortable without a gadget or 10 clutched firmly in their hands.

Visiting my four and seven-year-old nephews in Ireland - pronounced Oyreland if you're a local - for the holidays revealed that my kids are not the only tech-obsessed preschoolers. Their greatest desire was the Nintendo DS Light.

This was a product of being handed cellphones in the car to get some non-fighting time, my sister confided. And what had started off as make-believe telephone calls to each other in the back seat, rapidly escalated to wanting to actually do something on the phones.

A 'real' experience was in demand.

So my sister and her hubby downloaded a game or two to their cellulars and watched, astonished, as their vital communication tools became no longer available to the parents.

With a fair amount of scepticism Mommy Christmas bought the bright pink Barbie laptop for my household's resident princess. To make sure fights were averted my two-year-old buster received a Barney laptop.

If nothing else, I thought, the playthings may entertain them for a good five minutes on the long journey home.

Our kids will probably never feel comfortable without a gadget or 10 clutched firmly in their hands.

Kimberly Guest, senior journalist, ITWeb

Meanwhile, my nephews' faces were being obscured by the permanently present DS Light. The presents - which Santa on that family's side had acquiesced to - were undoubtedly a hit.

Of course being fairly young, the games did provide the boys challenges from time to time. On one such occasion Aunty Kim (resident specialist, Uncle Ben, was unavailable) was called on to retrieve one Star Wars character from a particularly tough spot in the game.

I'm ashamed to say I failed. I couldn't get my fingers - or head for that matter - around the combination of push-button and stylus controls. Within seconds, however, my daughter grabbed the little machine and with a few deft moves completed the bewildering sequence of actions to reach the end of the stage.

Surely then I should have been prepared for how quickly my madam would adapt to a laptop?

Naively, I underestimated the technological prowess of my daughter. As I sat on the plane trying to explain what e-mail and Internet was, my very bemused pre-schooler looked at me and said: "Oh mommy, everyone knows that."

About an hour later she turned to me with a quizzical look on her face and asked: "How else would you send letters?"

Now, if only I could get her to sort out the various glitches on my own laptop and programme a series of macros to make my stories write themselves. I'm sure she knows how, she's just unwilling to make things too easy for me.

In the meantime, I'll play around with the actual plastic Barbies that came from Santa. It's a realm in which I'm more comfortable.