How Kids Cope TodayOn stress, cookies, socks, and emailby Ian Shoales The Girl Scouts, that mysterious organization primarily devoted to selling cookies, now offers a badge in stress management, or so I recently learned (from connectingwithkids.com). Learning how to start a fire using a Hello Kitty pencil just doesn't cut it anymore. As for the cookies themselves, Wired News informed me ("Thin Mints in Cyberspace," Feb. 11, 2002) that Girl Scouts can now sell them through email. Mom Beth Broussalian of Laguna Hills, Calif. explained: "In today's environment, you're not going to send your kid out to go door-to-door in your neighborhood without your supervision." Instead of buying Thin Mints from a stress-free, freckle-faced kid, I'll be signing for them from a harried UPS guy. Sure, Mom knows best, but this just doesn't seem right. And How Safe Is Email?Wired News also told me that "One in four children in the United Kingdom have been bullied or threatened through their mobile phone or PC," ("When Text Messaging Turns Ugly," Sept. 4, 2002). I'll admit that getting an anonymous email reading, "Give me cookies or die" would be disturbing. But when I was a kid, bullies didn't send threatening notes. No, they just beat me up. And when the time comes that Mom, stress managers, and text-based bullies are left behind and we stride off to college, it leads to a whole new set of issues, most of them involving dirty clothes. Laundry Ho!When I was in college, several hundred miles away from Mom and her washer, I followed the traditional student strategy: Do not wash clothes until the last possible moment. When I could put it off no longer, I'd bundle everything into a huge ball and push it down the street to the Suds-Ur-Duds. I sometimes tried to hold out until Thanksgiving, when Mom and Dad took me home for the holidays. But that never worked, because after the mound of laundry, there was no room in the car left for the family. I heard rumors that some laundry had accumulated so long it actually became sentient, and, in a move of desperate self-preservation, rolled itself to the Laundromat. The Unattended LoadThe freshman dirty dungaree dilemma is about to change. IBM unveiled a new eSuds washer and dryer system this September. Students will be able to log on to a Web page to check machine availability at the Laundromat and receive emails when their loads finish. Dean Douglas, vice president of IBM Global Services, explained why this is a good idea: "Where I went to school, if you left your clothes in the machine, [they] would end up on the floor." The promoters of eSuds believe that students spend most of their time studying, which, if my college days are any indication, might be an unwarranted assumption. "Our students truly do live at their computers," claimed Joe Schott, a residence hall director at Boston College. Well maybe, but I suspect they're playing Quake, downloading music, or chatting, rather than doing research for a history paper. Still, eSuds might be a good thing. Better to receive this text message from the dryer: "Your laundry is done," than an email from a guy down the hall: "Wash your clothes or else, smelly boy." That can lead to stress, you know, and even in today's Laundromats, stress managers are hard to find. Ian Shoales lives in San Francisco, where he owns his own washer and dryer, and two dozen unmatched socks.
|
 |
Most Popular This Week
IE Weekly Newsletter
Subscribe to the newsletter
| |
|
|