What iPads Did To My Family

The Initial Reaction

My wife and kids summed it up in 30 seconds. “Oh no, Dad bought another toy”. “Why do we need something else with a CPU in it?”. “What does it replace?”. And so on.

Within four hours, my wife was playing with the photo app, and sending pictures to people — she’d be meaning to do so for a while. Tap, tap, tap. She was doing that from the back porch with a frosty adult beverage to complement the activity.

She was smiling.

That fun was followed by an extended Facebook session (she’s a big fan, I don’t use it). Tap, tap, tap. This was lying on the couch with a tennis match on. More smiles.

She left it on the table, and my 14 year old daughter (the artist in the family) started playing with an Autodesk illustrator app I had downloaded. Tap, tap, tap.

“Dad, this is cool”. Tap, tap, tap. “Look at this!” My email is now filling up with her drawings.

My college daughter is home from school. Late that night, she grabbed it and ran up to her room. Tap, tap, tap. “Dad, I want one”. “You do know, there’s wi-fi everywhere on campus — this would be perfect”.

Are you starting to get the picture?