The progeny of my generation are so spoiled compared to how we had it. At least from my perspective of having grown up in a working-class family.
But that’s the point, isn’t it? To give the best to our kids. The generation prior suffered so the generation after can have more options.
This past weekend, my cousin threw a one year birthday party for his son, renting out a private room in a sort of fancy restaurant. Admittedly, it was great time spent with family, and the food was pretty damn delicious. All of that could not have been cheap, and yet I don’t think my nephew would ever remember the experience. I surely don’t remember my first birthday party - if there even was one.
The advantage my kid nephew has if he’s so inclined to revisit his first birthday party later on is that there’s plenty of pictures and videos of the event. The babies these days have their lives so well documented, thanks to everyone around them having a smartphone. Literally every single day since his birth, there’s photos of my nephew on my cousin’s phone. In fact, his wife specifically purchased the larger storage capacity of iPhone for this very purpose.
Talk about embarrassing photos of youth resurfacing later on in life: the kids of today have no idea what’s going to hit them when their parents can dig out photographic evidence from any particular time from their entire existence.
But are we too busy documenting our babies’ every moment that we are forgetting to be in the moment? I think the potential pitfall is certainly there. It’s rather like how some people attending concerts seem to be more preoccupied with capturing the performance on their phones than actually listening to the music live as is.
I guess I’ll find out for myself. Eventually.
Diplomatic immunity.