Does this ever happen to you? (the generation gap)

My parents had me pretty late in life... while most breeding couples start really feeling the biological clock tick at about the age of 30, my folks were closer to 40 when they had me.

So basically, as a youngster, I've served as the Ambassador of Technology in some form or another to my parents. (there is still a rotary phone installed on the wall of the kitchen - at this point not a sign of lack of progress, now it's cool vintagey) In 1999, after years of Dad asking about "what the internet is like" and what it would take to "get on it" with the 486/Windows 3.1 he had, I finally just decided that the gift of a modern computer and a dialup account would set them on the path. Today, the same 7-year old Win98 box is chugging along on the dial-up. It's fair to say that access to technology/media hasn't made them any more adventurous/inquisitive about developments in said technology/media. In 2003, it was the humble cell phone. Bought them a pay-as-you-go phone since they might not want to have to deal with a contract... Only in the past year have they gotten comfortable with the notion that they don't need to call FROM a cell phone to reach some one else's cell phone.

I'm not saying all this just to rag on my parents for avoiding the cutting edge... I'm saying this all as background for this brief, yet far overdue observation:

Whenever I go to visit over the holidays and I sit down at the computer to check mail, browse about, etc. etc., eventually either Mom or Dad will wander over and stand over my shoulder, watching what I'm doing, not as surveillance, but "just to learn something new". And I don't know how to say it in a way that will be convincing on this, the 522nd time - there's nothing to learn by watching someone browse the web on a dial-up connection. Waiting for pages to load is not a learning experience. There's nothing to see. And ultimately, if I do do something on the local machine at my normal speed, they eventually shuffle away shaking their heads muttering something about never being able to follow what I'm doing, it's just too complicated. So then the frustrated teenager in me huffs and puffs "well why do you keep staring over my shoulder then?"

Ah, children and their parents. No matter what age, you'll always be your parent's kid, oppressed by their protective parenting, and always doing something that their parental wisdom considers foolish. So stop picking things up off the ground and putting them in your mouth. I mean it. Right now. I'm going to count to three, and don't make me come over there...