How is Y2K effecting kids in your home?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

I recently placed some comments from my son under the head- ing "leave it to a teen ager." In the nut shell my 9y/o son's insight on a recent purchase was astounding. (He needed to choose between a computer and a swimming pool) His thoughts were that the pool would be more usefull when the problems hit instead of the computer. It made me realize that life as we know it will be dramatically changing. We, as adults, have had experiences that our children may never experience because of the Y2K problems. College may never be a possibilty. The dream car my son has his heart set on may never occur. The impact of this issue will have generational effects. They will survive because we are preparing. They are helping with the preparation. Their lives will be enriched, in some ways, because when the dust clears life may be much simpler. I'm giving thoughts now on how to help them with this transition. It'll be easier on my younger one who is 4y/o. The hardest on my 14y/o.

How do you think this will effect your children and what are you doing to include them in this transition of life and how do you feel they will make the leap to this new way of life.

May God bless each family and provide you the strength for our children will be the future and hopefully when year 3000 hits they won't make the mistakes our generation makes.

-- Kim Welling (artw@lancnews.infi.net), March 30, 1998

Answers

I only have a 15 y/o at home and she understands that the future may not happen as she has planned, but we are continuing with her education and activities as if the future will be "normal". She is involved with our farm, gardening, raising animals, training horse,etc. and so is well prepared in that way. Our older children are away from home, but plan on coming home if things get bad. They are definitely re-thinking their plans.

I guess this is one of those areas that makes me angry and that is business/management being so selfish and stupid as to possibly change the future so much that our children won't even have the opportunities that many of us have had.

-- Rebecca Kutcher (kutcher@pionet.net), March 30, 1998.


Sometimes I think that an issue may be going over the head of my 6 year old, but by his responses later I know he was listening and thinking about the discussion. I've tried to explain to him and his 15 yo brother the problem and its ramifications. We had some car problems the other day and my youngest asked me if it was a computer problem. He is very attached and comforted by his cat-so it is definitely part of the planning. My 15 y.o. wasn't too distraught to learn he wouldn't be getting his mom's car (we're waiting till after 2000 to make a purchase. I just worry about keeping his carbohydrate levels satisfied- he eats a huge dinner and then cruises back for a qt. of ice cream and a giant bowel of cold cereal. (I have a large garden we eat out of year round so he eats well, it's just he requires so many calories right now.) I'm going to buy a large quantity of popcorn - this will help, I think. I refer to the singular I because my wife has a real hard time thinking about y2k. I have to be respectful of her feeling. When I am she can make choices herself- like waiting to make the car purchase. I've learned from my rabidly religious neighbor how you can really turn people off to a message. I figure all of life is about learning balance; preparing for what may be while living with what is- those around you who need your attention and affection.

-- skipper clark (skipper@cncnet.com), March 31, 1998.

I have four kids, none of who are in on this planning. They take it all with a grain of salt, are sure we or some other They is fixing all that is wrong with the world and are just being... well, kids. They are not small - 18,14,13,9. We are not shoving this down their throats. I figure it's for the best that they are able to remain kids just as long as possible. When things go down they will have parents who were looking out for them and they will be required to help more with preparations at a later date. They've been good farm type kids to date so I don't see any problems with them falling in line and being a great help.

It just seems unnecessary to talk too much about the worst case scenarios in front of them. Why give them nightmares also, I'm having enough for everyone in this house!

-- BooBear (BooBear@rocketmail.com), April 05, 1998.


I have two boys, both just starting school. They are completely out of the loop on this thing. It is my responsibility to make sure they're taken care of, and so I have been taking carefully planned actions.

My wife and I have been introducing them to various storable foods over the past two years, and noting which ones they like and/or tolerate well. These recipes become part of our stored food inventory. So far they like dad's homemade granola, granola bars, beef jerky, and creamy chicken rice soup. They like mom's homemade bread, tortillas, posole, spanish rice, beans, and taquitos. They like dad's salad dressing on fresh salad, and think dried apples are great treat, or popcorn, or cinnamon toast with hot chocolate on the colder mornings. They are used to Kool-Aid as the standard refreshment, and we've got the recipe down to half strength on the sugar with good tolerance. It's easy to stock up a year's supply of Kool-Aid. We won't have any trouble getting them fed.

They experience stress when the power fails, unless dad brings out the power failure kit and sets up a couple of lights in the evening. Then all is well. As for television, we're slowly weaning them off with a concept called "reality day," which is a day without TV or computer usage. There are getting to be more reality days than not in our house. We, and they, have tons of books on hand; we shop the library book sales regularly. On good weather days we kick them out of the house and let them terrorize the neighbors.

On 12/31/1999, the kids will receive a surprise: a puppy! A reward for all the good work they've been putting in and an excellent distraction if suddenly we're having lots of reality days with the standby power system running all the time. The puppy will come complete with his own canned food supply.

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance, but only if the plans are implemented in time. Get cracking.

"It's not paranoia when your fears are based on facts." -Tom Sullivan-

-- Tom Sullivan (sullivantom@hotmail.com), May 05, 1998.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ