Not especially tech savvy, I wait for family vacations to pester our older grandchildren and ask their help to make my use of electronics more user friendly. The best is when they, by happenstance, see me struggling with something and teach me a trick that is indispensable to my life. This may seem like an exaggeration until I share what my granddaughter just taught me. PopPop, our two oldest grandchildren and
I were playing an open hand of Hearts, as we were teaching the next oldest grandchild how to play Hearts, one of the games we play often when we are together, when my phone rang.
The number was unknown to me and I was struggling to silence the call unsuccessfully. Our granddaughter showed me how to immediately hit the button on the right of the IPhone twice to stop the call. This is not as easy as it seemed. I ended up hitting the buttons on both sides simultaneously and ended up with a screenshot. How to silence unwanted calls is a great trick to know as I get several calls a day from unknown numbers that I do not answer. It is so annoying having to listen to them ring until they stop. No more, thanks to our granddaughter. I have already has the opportunity to pass this tip on to my thankful grandma friends.
Then our granddaughter proceeded to check how my IPhone was charging. She got to a screen that showed when my phone was showing 100% charged it was really only 86% charged. The three older grandchildren seemed to agree that an IPhone battery should be replaced at 83%. I now have to make an appointment at Apple to get a new battery. Thank goodness for grandchildren. She did this so fast I have no idea what she did.
The last family vacation, I learned how to take a screenshot. But, at that time, I did not know how useful taking screenshots can be to my daily life. Our grandchildren find this skill useful to their lives in getting me to shop for them and to share things with them, I think, even more usefulness than to my life. I now use screen shots for food shopping, reminders, recipes, interesting quotes or photos to keep or share. I share mid-century modern homes, furniture and accessories, as the three older grandchildren have gotten hooked on what we grandparents love in our home. They intelligently use screenshots to text me clothing and items they covet and hope I will send them, or snacks they want me to have when they visit. And, remember, the tips on how to “never say no” apply here too. Maybe! I’ll get back to you! Let me think about it! And, the final one that works, “Let me talk to your Mother/Father first.” See, posts,
Now home from the family vacation in New Hampshire and Maine, viewing Instagram (which, of course a grandchild set up for me at some past family get together), I saw an ad for beautiful new minimalist home accessories. It said “design forward” and mentioned Architectural Digest, which I read on Apple News. The grandchildren confirm that I am seeing those sorts of ads that they say are targeted to me.
With my grandchildren’s help, this family vacation, I also learned how to get to my IPad apps faster and easier by having them in labeled folders. Yes, all three oldest grandchildren got frustrated setting up multiple folders for me on my IPad and teaching me how to create folders and move apps into them. Our oldest did the most. I perceived they, one after another, were exasperated with me. Fortunately, I got it, but not after “playing dumb” for a bit after, as it was tedious for me and just a breeze for them.
I have to be honest that I have added a minuscule number of new folders since they did practically all for me. I am going to wait until our next family vacation for them to duplicate the folders on my IPhone. I feel like I won, being able to share life with our incredibly loving and caring grandchildren. Yes, I am a proud and lucky grandparent.
And, our second oldest grandson, age 13? How long did it take him to learn how to play Hearts after being taught by PopPop, our two oldest grandchildren and me simultaneously and shown in one open hand how to play Hearts? After practicing in just three closed hands and then immediately playing a complete round to fifty points?
He won.
Joy,
Mema
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