You know that post-bedtime silence when you finally hear yourself think? This quiet, after the kids are finally asleep, is precious, isn’t it? What a day. For you, for me. Just sitting here on the couch next to you, the silence broken only by our breathing… this might be the most important part of the day. I was just scrolling through the news on my phone, and it hit me. The world is shouting about how AI is going to change everything, how new tech is being born every minute. Sometimes, reading all that, it feels like I can’t breathe—this knot of anxiety tightening in my chest—are we keeping up? Are we preparing our kids for this future? But then I look at you, and that feeling just… melts. You have this way of holding our family’s center, a quiet confidence in what truly matters. You’re not swayed by the dizzying pace of the world. And tonight, I just wanted to talk about that wisdom, that compass you hold for all of us.
Navigating the Murky Waters of New Tech
All the articles about new technology feel like reading a recipe for a dish I’ve never heard of, with ingredients I can’t pronounce. There’s this pressure that we have to master it all, to serve up this perfect, futuristic meal for our kids. But I’ve seen how you handle it. You always pause and ask the simple question: ‘But is it something our family would actually enjoy?’
That’s the heart of it, isn’t it? No matter how flashy or advanced a gadget is, what’s the point if it doesn’t make our life together warmer, more meaningful?
I remember when we were debating getting a new learning tablet. Everyone was recommending the latest model with all the AI features. But you just watched our child quietly for a few days. Then you said it. ‘I don’t think they need a machine that gives them answers right now. I think they need more time to fall in love with the questions.’ That sliced through all my noise.
We ended up skipping the tablet and spending the afternoon at the library instead, picking out real books, making up our own stories with clumsy drawings. It’s one of my favorite memories. Watching you choose our family’s happiness over the world’s expectations… that quiet strength is one of the things I admire most about you.
Our Values Over Velocity
We live in a world that moves so fast. If you stop for a second, you feel like you’re being left behind. That pressure is even more intense with kids. ‘Did you hear the neighbors’ kid is already in coding class?’ ‘There’s this app that teaches financial literacy to toddlers…’ It’s hard not to feel that rush of anxiety. But whenever I get swept up in it, you gently pull out our family’s compass. And it always points in the same direction: time spent together.
A dinner where we actually listen to each other’s stories. A weekend afternoon spent running wild in a park.
I think, without even saying it, we’re practicing choosing ‘together’ over ‘latest’ or ‘best.’ I see the way you value a noisy board game with the whole family over a silent child glued to a new app, and in that, I see the path we’re meant to be on. You show me every day that while technology can make our lives more convenient, it’s the warmth in our gaze, the care in our voices, that truly makes us happy.
This is how to balance tech for kids—not by adding more rules, but by offering a more beautiful alternative.
‘I Don’t Know’ is an Invitation, Not a Failure
I’ll be honest, sometimes all this new tech makes me feel small. Like I’m supposed to be the dad who knows things, who can fix things and explain the world. But the world is changing faster than I can learn. You must see that flicker of doubt in my eyes, because you always say the thing that calms the storm: ‘Well, let’s figure it out together.’
You’re never ashamed to not know. You’ll turn to our kids and say, ‘I’ve never seen this before, want to explore it with me?’ and you turn a moment of uncertainty into an adventure. Watching you do that, I realized our family doesn’t need an ‘expert dad.’ It needs a ‘teammate dad’—someone willing to sit on the floor, be a beginner, and learn alongside them.
That time we fumbled with those coding blocks, completely lost, and then finally made a little character move across the screen? We all cheered so loudly. We weren’t just learning about tech in that moment. We were learning how to trust each other, how to solve a problem as a team. That’s a lesson no app can teach.
The Greatest Technology We Have is Connection
Talking this through with you tonight, it’s all becoming so clear. No matter how the world changes, no matter what unbelievable inventions appear, the thing that will keep our family grounded is this. These quiet conversations. The moments at the end of the day when we check in, when we remind each other what’s real amid all the noise.
When you look our child in the eye and ask, ‘What was your favorite part of today?’… that simple question is the most powerful technology we will ever own.
Thank you for calming my anxieties when the waves of change feel overwhelming. Thank you for holding the compass that keeps us from losing our way. Here in the quiet, next to you, I feel a deep certainty that whatever comes next, we’re going to be okay. We’ll walk through it together. We really will.
Source: Are we inching closer to an OpenAI IPO?, Fortune, 2025-09-15