Computer Hog
Posted by Pamela Gustafson on December 2nd, 2008
My family of four loves computers and the online environment. My husband likes to play online games, and my son also plays games and constantly downloads files. When and if my son decides to do his homework, the computer is a necessity. My daughter craves music and burns CD’s with mixes of her favorites.
Then I come along with online classes. Needless to say, the classes suddenly created fierce competition to use the family computer. My household didn’t realize the added time I would need on the computer.
Let negotiations for computer time begin! My high school-aged son volunteered to use the computer late at night. Nope. That meant I would have to drag him out of bed the next day and throw him on the bus for school. We already broke his habit of staying up too late by installing a toggle switch on the phone line dedicated to the computer.
I outsmarted my young electronics wiz by putting the switch under the bathroom sink, behind the tampons, a place where he’d never look. He would go downstairs and try to trace the path of the phone lines from where the line entered the house. He would leaves the lines dangling…leaving evidence of his search.
Later at night wasn’t an option for me either. I was usually tired by 8:00 p.m. If I sat down to watch a little TV waiting to use the computer I would fall asleep before the end of the first half hour sitcom. This is how my son’s late night habit started in the first place; he knew I was sleeping and was generally oblivious to what he was doing.
Going with the rhythm of my body, I started setting the alarm for 5:00 a.m. With a Diet Pepsi to help wake me, I could get in two hours of work on my online classes. And, it was blissfully quiet at that hour
Deep down, I’m sure my family enjoyed it when I left the house to take classes; one less computer hog!
Tags: computers, family, online classes
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Family, Friends, Employers, and Returning to School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
