a space for grace

So my 8 year old daughter has been begging for a Nintendo DS because she’s “the only one in my class who doesn’t have one” …
Well, I know this isn’t true for one thing, and for another, I don’t think you have to spend a lot of money on games and toys (when she was just a toddler she spent a lot of time playing with empty yogurt containers) and I hate to think of spending that much on a game that’s maybe not going to get played with very much a month from now. Plus I worry about kids getting too much screen time and not enough nature time. So this is why I kept saying no.
Then she came home with her Scholastic book order forms from school and one of them featured all computer, gameboy, WII and DS titles, and the pleading started again.
When she said, “what if I buy it myself” I relented – because she has money saved from Christmases and birthdays passed, and from doing some odd jobs, like watering the plants and feeding the cat while neighbours were away. So I agreed that would be okay.
What an exciting morning it was as I brought her to purchase her DS and a game to play on it. She bought it, charged it up and started playing that afternoon.
Before bed she said to me, “Thanks for letting me get it, because, you know everyone is talking about their electronic games and stuff and I could only stand there I didn’t have anything to say. I couldn’t join in the conversation.”
And, that long winded story was to say that, I think that is the best reason for libraries, and for anyone, to be participating in social media – so they know what is going on – with the tools, and what is being said with the tools, and they can join in the conversation.