Bad cookies are the bane of my life. No. Not a disaster in the kitchen, although clearing up after Phoebe could drive you to the brink.... I'm talking about computer cookies.
A-A-A-R-R-R-G-G-G-H-H-H-!-!-!
I have a netbook. I like everything about it, compactness, screen size, portability etc. So does my son. Phoebe's got one of my husband's older laptops for help with homework. It's in the study and does not go out of there. So you quite often call her and she doesn't hear because she's attached to the laptop with her pink headphones.... but at least we know where she is and what she's doing.
Tom is frustrated by the apparent (to him) unfairness of his not having a games console or computer of his own. We've noticed that his TV viewing has increased since last year's arrival, and we have a 'screen time' limit of 1 hour per day - be it TV, Computer or DVD (well, a DVD's allowed to run as it would be petty to cut it off mid storyline).
We've explained to both children about children's brain development being (probably) affected by too much screen time, but it goes in one ear and out the other, so strong is the lure of the screen, (so weak their willpower/understanding?), so easy a babysitter it is for the busy parents. It's becoming a battle, and can be difficult to manage without tears, and/or storming off in a huff (and that's just me!!!).
So, from time to time, I give in, and allow Tom time on my netbook. He's drawn to games, which he's had experience of at other children's homes or at the childcare centre he attends in the holidays. I try to steer him towards more educational sites and don't mind the Lego site, but he invariably ends up on Bin Weevils, Moshi Monsters, Club Penguin, Sonic, Monsuno, Hexbugs, Techdeck and Minecraft.
Some of these sites are product related - so he's researching the latest developments in the toys he already has, and I accept this interest as part and parcel of having a 7 year old boy. But we don't allow him access to sites which require him to register or request parent's e-mail. So he's found a way around this which is logical and, to my mind, a wierd aspect of the modern world.
Because he can't play on Minecraft on my computer, he's found his way to YouTube and can view film which people have posted there of them playing Minecraft. (!?)
So he 'joins in' by watching film of other people playing a computer game and listening to their commentary as they play, (which sometimes is a bit fruity, and I've told him he's not to repeat this language). I honestly don't know what I find more disturbing/unsettling - people posting this stuff (WHY??? for the love of whatever you hold sacred, WHY?), or Tom watching it... I'm just too old and the wrong sex I suppose.
Anyhow. The downside of him going on my computer is it gets gunked up with Cookies. Now. I'm not technical by any stretch of the imagination. As I understand it a Cookie is a program/app that the website you're visiting places on your computer so they can run certain investigations for their benefit. (Sounds sinister?). I'm suspicious but allow Cookies from trusted sites. The BBC is my most obvious most visited and most trusted site.
Tom doesn't care about Cookies, unless they've come out of the oven, and I call them biscuits. Herein lies the problem. How to make him more cautious/careful when he's on my netbook? I think last night's episode may have demonstrated the problem to him..
He'd been asking to enter a competition on Blue Peter (long-running childrens' TV programme) for a couple of weeks, and needed a form from their website in order to enter. So last night, after we'd put him off all day (because we were too busy) I cut him a break and said OK sorry for not doing it sooner, I'll print it off now.
A-R-G-H! G-R-R-R.
The process took over 2 hours because my computer was so gunked up from Cookies, was running very slowly and kept going round in circles, and dragged its feet, and waded through treacle, and hung, and hung on task manager (ARGH again), and then for some reason the printer setup was SNAFU* as well, although by this time I'd sent the document 3 times, checked printer queue, saved it in downloads and become so throughly fed up that I decided a re-boot was necessary and then had to cold boot by powering down instead of closing down properly (ARGH again).... Re-booted and cleared cookies and browsing history and now need to de-frag (again..) and work out why the wrong printer had appeared in default.
I probably should back up some of the photos from the hard disk and then delete them, there's over 3 years of photos there), but there never seems to be time to do that either... But I certainly need to get a grip on the cookies.
Yeurk. Kat.
*SNAFU military term: 'Situation Normal All F*'d Up' [ :) ]
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