Start Spreading the News….

Our family has just returned from Spring Break in New York. After a brief, but nice visit with my mom and my 88-year old grandmother on the far end of Long Island, we dropped off the rental car and headed into New York City.  Cue the Sinatra! 

What followed was a well-packed week of museums, skyscrapers, funky neighborhoods, the requisite “bagel with a schmear” and plenty of good old New York fun. Part of the time, it was just our family of four meandering around the city that never sleeps. For about three days, we were joined by as many as twelve extended family members, touring and traipsing together around the Big Apple.

It was great fun. Seriously! That said, seeing the sights via sidewalk and subway with sixteen people – including eight kids ages 3 to 13 - requires communication, coordination and flexibility, as well as a fair dose of patience.

Our phones were a vital resource. In addition to relying heavily on texting to stay in touch when our group split for naps or to explore separately, we leaned on a few key iPhone apps for reliable, on-the-go access to subway and street maps, restaurant recommendations, and details on avoiding lines at the major attractions.

I cannot express how much easier and spontaneous traveling can be when you have some trusty iPhone apps in hand. Below are some of my favorite – and FREE – NYC-related travel apps from this trip:

Google Maps: A favorite standby for getting from point A to B, no matter where you travel.

NYC Way: Whether you are a local or a tourist, the NYC Way app is a winner! Three pages of icons loaded with information such as: restrooms, Street Eats, Coffee, Wi-Fi, Cross St Finder, Grocery, Banks, Kid-Friendly (a favorite). There is even an icon for the lighting schedule of the Empire State Building. Location-specific items give an address and distance from your current location. Click on a location for contact information, to call directly, or get directions from your current spot.

Ten of the 16 on the NYC subway platform.

Subway Map Apps: We used these constantly. There is not much of a wireless signal underground so the apps use a static map. You still need a general understanding of the subway system, but having a tiny version in your hand provides a discrete way to verify your route when you find yourself on a crowded train far from an official map or unable to hear the conductor; important when you are riding an express train downtown. I used the NY Transport Map by OnDemand World the most. They provide maps for major metropolitan cities worldwide. Another good one is NYC Subway KICKMap by Kick Delight, LLC, which handily separates out local and express into different lines on the map. Although the subway is far safer than when I lived in New York in the late 80s, it is still nice to be able to privately consult your phone.  I recall ending up in Brooklyn or Queens by mistake in 1989 and did not want to do that to our party of 16. (no offense to Brooklyn or Queens!)  The Kick Map also has a night-time feature which shows you which stations and stops close after 11pm.  Not a needed feature for our particular group.

MidTown in my Pocket by AppFury, LLC: This handy map labels the stores and restaurants building-by-building and block-by-block throughout midtown Manhattan.

The Best of New York by Baffled Travel: This is a cute app - found on another blog called NYCity Mama - that sorts out top things to see and do in New York. Examples are: Top Views, Tops for Kids, Free or Nearly Free, etc. You can sort by neighborhood, price and “near me” using the location finder.

Mom Maps: I call this nationwide app a work-in-progress, at least as far as NYC is concerned. It does have great potential, though. Users input and review their favorite Kid-friendly locations: parks, playground, indoor play, restaurants, etc. As it relies on user input, your mileage may vary. Case in point was our group of twelve following Mom Maps directions to a closed and decrepit “playground” in Hell’s Kitchen. That said, it was all part of the adventure!

We also made good use of the usual dining apps: UrbanSpoon and Open Table although neither was all that useful with a group of sixteen.

So, Spring Breakers out there…..which apps make your travels easier? Please share!

They Really Have No Idea, Do They?

Kids these days. Can't you just you hear your grandfather’s voice in you now? 

Sometimes I jokingly remind my kids, “when I was your age, we had one TV with five channels and no remote. You had to actually get up and walk across the room to change the channel.” They feign surprise and a hint of indignation, but I seriously doubt they have a clue about the relative home entertainment hardship my generation endured. The fact that we could only watch the exciting hit shows of the time, “Happy Days” and “Laverne and Shirley”, on Friday nights at 8pm and 8:30pm respectively, and that if I had to go to the bathroom, I needed to hold it until a commercial. Mostly lost on them.

They try to understand and put things in perspective, as only an eight and five year old can do. Case in point. Yesterday, my son was asking how IBM could be 100 years old as a company when computers have not been around that long. Good point.

My husband and I gave him the background that International Business Machines is the original name and we started noting some, now defunct, “business machines.” They were really engaged when we got to the typewriter and reminded them of places they had seen old-fashioned typewriters before. They were nodding and getting it, and we felt so connected, until the older one said, “I get it! Before computers and iPads, people used IBM typewriters to send their emails.”  Sigh.

So, it is time to share.  What are some of today’s conveniences that replace the “relative hardships” of your youth that your kids probably cannot comprehend?

{N.B. I turned on Anonymous commenting so you don’t need a Google account to comment, but feel free to sign your name anyway.}

The Smurfs Woke Me at 5am

While the cartoon Smurfs are sorta cute, a 5am wake-up call by the virtual ones is not. 

This saga begins a few weeks ago when my husband had been traveling for almost two weeks.  I was so tired of hearing, "Can I go on the computer?" and "I never get to go on the computer," yet I wasn't sure where to draw the line for our house.  I was trying to stay flexible.  Keep my options open.  I started writing my thoughts here and researching on-line and with friends to learn more about what is appropriate for kids in general, for my kids and for our family.  The lack of rules in this area had led to a "wear Mom down" mentality and was causing more trouble than what ever point I was trying to make was worth.

Every house is different and some studies suggest far more screen time than we plan to allow in our house.  The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests "no more than one to two hours" per day for school-age kids. (AAP Website on Media Issues.)  Many of my friends don't allow any screen time during the week (they are clearly better parents ;-))  With my husband frequently away on business, I'm not brave enough to go cold turkey.  After doing some research, talking with John, and polling various friends, we settled on a rule of 30 minutes of screen time per day/per child.  The net result is really one hour per kid since they watch each other.  Sidebar: Now would be a good time to take the poll to the right of your screen (hint hint!) 

Under the new rules, screen time is only available after other chores (homework, piano, clothes in hamper, dishes cleared, etc) are complete.  Screen time can be lost for the day for several reasons and cannot be carried over.  Screen time, which currently takes place on the iPad, is timed via oven timer, and the user must get up, relinquish the iPad, and turn off the timer when finished.  The kids bought into the new plan and we were a happy family again.

Until the Smurfs. 

No one in the house knows exactly how the Smurfs landed on the iPad (the popular theory is that the five year old did it), but there they were and they were making themselves known. 

In Smurfs' Village (probably a bit like Farmville, although I've never played that), the Smurfs plant gardens of raspberries, carrots, and other crops, which grow at different rates, must be picked before they wilt, and can be traded up for more seeds and, the ever-important XP (experience points) which allow the players to gain entry to new and higher levels of the Smurfs' Village.  I can pretend the kids are gaining valuable planning and farming skills, but I have my doubts as to the true educational nature of this game.

I have, however, no doubt about the addictive nature of it.  The game pushes frequent pop-up reminders to the iPad with a loud ping and message stating, "Your raspberries are ready to harvest!"  Upon hearing the ping, the kids drop everything and run to attend to their crops before they "wilt".  Within days, my little farmers were obsessed.  I was dumbfounded.  One day, after I wearily put the iPad on Silent mode - after a ping at 5AM! - they blamed me for letting their crops wilt.

Thanks to the Smurfs, our 30-minute rule quickly devolved into 30 minutes of crop building, followed by on-going checking, harvesting and replanting at various intervals throughout the day.

There is a lot of information available on the addictive nature of on-line gaming, especially role playing and virtual reality types.  Much of the research is focused on teens and college students.  I believe the prevalence of iPhones and iPads and games like these among the younger set presents a wake-up call for parents everywhere.  I'm starting to read up on the impact of constant and addictive screen time on the developing impulse control and attention span of younger kids and will share any conclusions I find soon, but I don't think it has been long enough to know the real long-term effect of the i-devices.

In the meantime, my early-morning Smurfs wake-up call was the beginning of the end for the Smurfs in our house.  Kids, especially my kids, need to have limits set for them, and to have moderation modeled, even when it means letting the Smurfs' Village raspberries wilt.