by Jamie Gross

GUEST COLUMNIST

We all know our teenagers and preteens are whizzes on the computer and they all want or have cell phones. It doesn't surprise me when my 8- or 10-year-old begs me for a cell phone and uses the, "but everybody has one dad." But I was taken aback the other day by a 4-year-old.

We use our cell phones a lot to entertain our children -- on road trips, in the doctor's office -- so our children are familiar with the games on our phones and I wasn't surprised the other day when my 4-year-old daughter asked to play a game on my phone.

I said, "Sure honey, just let me get it there for you."

She said, "No Dad, I want to get my own game."

I just kind of ignored that, thinking there was no way she knew how to do that. So I handed her the phone with a game pulled up.

She abruptly slammed the phone shut and said, "Dad, I said I would do it!"

She opened the phone and pushed the menu button, scrolled over to the entertainment section, opened it, scrolled to the games icon, clicked on it and chose the game she wanted and exclaimed, "See Dad, I told you I could do it."

I can't get her to learn all her letters to prepare for kindergarten, but she has learned how to get to games on my cell phone. The following day, she decided to show me how she can get to games on our home computer. She shocked me again by not going to a game icon on the computer, but by opening an Internet browser and going to a favorites address where her older sisters had shown her how to get to Disney games.

I never thought I would be old enough to say, "Do you remember when?" but now I am using them. I remember when I was my father's remote for the TV. I remember when there was a cord attached to the VCR remote. Heck, I remember when there were VCRs.

Another thing I was so rudely reminded of the other day was that my toys were nowhere near as cool as my children's toys. We were cleaning out our basement and found a garbage bag full of stuffed animals. My 2-year-old boy was so excited -- at least for a minute. He grabbed the first animal and started squeezing each of its hands and feet. He then put it on the ground and squished its stomach as hard as he could and poked its eyes. He looked at me and said, "This one is broken," and went to the next one with no more luck than the first.

I remember when stuffed animals where just stuffed with stuff and did nothing but comfort you with a hug. I remember when I had to read my own books and they didn't come with a pen that would read it for you. I remember car rides where you looked out the window to see wildlife, not the 12-inch TV overhead playing "Bambi." (Oh yeah, probably not "Bambi" -- that dates me too). Parenthood is wonderful but it sure makes you old quick. I hate remembering when.

Jamie Gross is a Tooele resident who graduated from Weber State University with a bachelor's degree in communications and a minor in family relations. He has been employed as a public relations and internal communications writer for the past 10 years. He has been married for 12 years and is the father of four children.