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Don’t mess with my desk[top]
By Nancy | March 8, 2008
When Andy was three, I was chatting with a more experienced mom about her part-time job. “Do you enjoy it?” I asked. “What I love is that no one touches my desk when I’m gone.” At the time, I was too much of a newbie parent to understand. I said, “Oh!” but I thought, “Huh?” It didn’t take long, though, as my three-year-old got more adventurous, to totally appreciate her point. As a parent, your children gradually permeate every corner of your world until very little is left untouched. It’s nice to have a private corner or two. Like a desk.
Recently, one of my last private corners apparently became public property — a corner I hadn’t even noticed, until it was disturbed: It’s the computer desktop. I take for granted that when I sit down at the computer, it will always look the same: same programs, same arrangement of icons, same everything. In fact, this is the reason we set up Andy as his own Windows user: He can enjoy a unicorn background, while I can feel satisfied and content with “Windows Classic.”
But recently, the desktop was touched. Not on purpose by the kids, but by the demons in their programs. After a Nickjr game had its way with us, the display resolution was set on “gigantic,” which meant rejiggering the display settings to get back to our “look.” (Who knew there was such a difference between 1024 x 768 and 800 x 600?) Another day, I went online to find a new and improved home page. Children claimed innocence, as did our ISP. Another day, a new toolbar appeared. Enough of the tools already!
I guess I need to do some work on sharing. But until I’ve matured in this area, it’s fair warning to my kids and the universe: Don’t mess with my desktop!
Topics: Setting limits |