Is It Bad That She Already Has Her Own Computer?

We are a family of three and one dog. We have four computers. It only makes sense that we each have our own computer. However, Nanook really doesn't care much for technology. Lucy, on the other hand, is crazy for it. Bell and I tried to keep her away from too many of this techno stuff-- "Go play with your wooden toys, little girl! Be a Luddite while you still can." But she was born with an innate techno-savviness that all the babes of this day and age seem to possess. When she began to talk she didn't ask for a doll. She said, "Where's my 'puter, papa? I need to check my email." We considered buying her one of those plastic toy laptops or some Leap Frog junk but she would know the difference. And inevitably it will be tossed onto the big pile of unwanted pseudo-real "made in China" toys with an air of disdain that only a child who's intelligence had been insulted would.

So we have a rarely used Dell laptop lying around the house. The only PC in a Mac house. It is now Lucy's 'puter. Some may say this is a bit much. No 3 year-old needs their own laptop before they can even read. It's not like we are handing life to her on a silver platter. She will be using a PC and the trials and tribulations that she will be exposed to under Windows tutelage is enough of an initiation into the complexities of the real world. Our job is done.

Lucy is already quite adept at using her laptop. She can point and click with the best of them. She loves her preschool games. If Dora and Mickey can teach her to read, so be it. But when it's time to stop, --she does have a time limit--we have to rip her tiny clutching fingers off the keyboard while she screams. "I need to do more work! Nooooo!!!" Lately we've had to resort to telling her our harrowing tales of a time without email, iphoto and wikipedia. When dial-up service was the only way to get onto the internet. This last detail usually scares her straight.