We're no experts

“May I help you?” the congenial salesperson greeted us.

Although I own an iBook, an iPhone, an iMac, and a titanium MacBook Pro, I instantly scanned the merchandise before making an appointment at the “genius bar” to fix my 8GB iPhone.  The “genius bar” is literally a bar, but no drinks.  The bartenders are dubbed geniuses because they’re supposed to fix whatever technological problem you have.   

I happened to be there with Jean Kingston – and we were on our way to discuss this blog – this very blog – which purports to raise kids who are not slaves to consumerism.

I played it cool.  After all, I am the one who was supposed to have a handle on these things.

But, after I consulted with a “genius” about my poorly performing iPhone, he said I might just need a new phone.

Jean hit me in the side.  “A new one?!”  

Jean laughed at being helped by someone called “genius.”  Once she walked into the store with a litany of problems, and the guy looked at her with much concern and regret.

“I’m sorry ma’am.  I’m not a genius,” he said.  “I wish I were, but I’m not.”

Jean and I left my iPhone at the genius bar and started walking through the rows of merchandise.  I slowly sauntered over to the real, actual new, gleaming G3s and picked one up.  With the white, rounded version in my hands, I was much cooler and trendier than moments ago.  I planned on returning back home and acting nonchalant as I flashed it in front of my friends like a diamond ring.

But then, the “genius” returned with my old phone – reconstituted.  It was even kind of dirty.  A smudge made the glass face look like an old window you wouldn’t want to look through.

In an instant, I was back to owning a regular old iPhone, feeling my regular old self.  I remembered I really needed to brush my hair.

Jean and I left the store with a little less pep in our step, and ducked into Au Bon Pain  for coffee and to start planning on how to raise kids who don’t take their material blessings for granted.

The irony was not lost on me.

Welcome to our world as expressed through this blog.  “The blog will fit nicely into the general SixSeeds purpose: encouraging family-based giving.  But it will be something more… a casual place to express fears, to challenge the status quo, and to share helpful ideas about the day to day life of the family. As you can see, we don’t have all the answers.  But hopefully, in the process of asking the right questions, we’ll get just a tad closer to figuring out how to do this parenting thing a bit better.

Echoing the Apple salesperson, we aren’t experts. We wish we were, but we’re not.  But with that full disclosure, we hope you’ll stick around, share some tips, and try to walk with us through this very cool and incredibly challenging iWorld in which we find ourselves.