Saturday, April 28, 2007

Of Bratz and Palayoks



My kids have, all of a sudden, become technology-savvy. Every night, they check their Friendster accounts and visit YouTube to check out Bratz videos. They do web searches for lyrics to the songs so they can sing along. Sometimes, they even imitate the dance steps of Jade, Chloe and the other Bratz girls. The songs aren't for young schoolgirls but for teenage party girls! They also have a Playstation cd of Bratz, where they do the hair and make-up of the characters, pick out fashionable clothes for them, take pictures on their virtual cellphone, dress up their pet dog, etc. I guess they prefer the digital version of Bratz because their dolls, which used to accompany them to the mall, have been relegated to the back part of their toy shelf. The last time I saw their Bratz car and motorcycle was several months ago, looking like wrecks after their ex-yaya painted them an uneven silver with her nail polish.

When I was their age, the most high-tech thing I can remember were 3-d glasses. You wear them to watch a certain cartoon (I think this was the one about the hardships of an orphan boy travelling with an old man). Unlike my daughters, I didn't play with dolls. Someone gifted me with a Barbie but I dont remember what happened to it after I took it out from its box. Fussing over Barbie's hair, gown and stilletos weren't my thing. I think I gave Barbie to my sister to add to her mini-collection. Instead, I played lutu-lutuan sa palayok with my sisters, made bubbles from gumamelas (was it gumamelas we used?) and played shato, chinese jackstones, chinese garter, ching-chang and sipa in school (I always could go past 100 on a single turn). My kids - they don't even know what a palayok or a sipa is.

On one hand, I'm happy my kids are adapting well to technology, able to cope with the fast pace of development and changes. On the other hand, I'm sad because they are not experiencing the simple joys I experienced when I was a young girl.

4 comments:

said...

i know what you mean. just yesterday i was talking to my officemate who had a son who is hooked to his nintendo. we were talking about how back in the day kids were content with simple games like jackstones and stuff like that...i mean it's good that they have more than what we had back then, but it's good to indulge in the simple things as well. parang you appreciate things a lot more.

http://probinsyana.wordpress.com

houseband00 said...

Happy Mother's Day, Tina! =)

tinapa said...

clare, true... true.

houseband, i guess you also deserve the greeting.

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