My son is just crazy about his iPad. And when I say crazy, I mean it goes everywhere with us. Yes, especially the bathroom! The poor gadget hasn’t seen 100% battery life since back in January when we became proud owners of our 5th addition to the family. Unfortunately, someone peeled the clear screen protector off undetected. It’s yet to be found, but I’m expecting to locate it squished tightly in a ball inside of the couch or have it turn up in one of my three children’s bedding any day now.
Needless to say, we now refer to the iPad as Robo-Pad around here….the perfect tumble to the hardwood floors has peeled back parts of the screen to reveal portions of mechanical brilliance lying beneath its surface. None the less, it is played every day and my children are all undergoing the withdrawal process of being without it for a while as Robo-Pad undergoes much needed repairs.
Just before I was ready to accept that our iPad may just be dismantled forever, someone shared the coolest book ever with me. “Good Night iPad” by Ann Droyd, a parody to the children’s classic, “Good Night, Moon”. I rushed off to the nearest Barnes & Noble only to have them put one on order for me. Luckily, I was determined to peel the iPad away from a 7-year-old, 5-year-old and 3-year-old with more ease than I had been achieving on my own, so the third book store I ran into had it in stock. (Nothing ever stops a special needs mother on a mission to put a halt to tantrums with our children, right?)
If you couldn’t tell by the pseudonym, Ann Droyd, chosen by children’s book author David Milgrim, this book is hilarious from start to finish. It mentions Angry Birds, Doom, Wi-Fi HDTV’s, a blackberry ringing with Eminem singing, Facebook friends, and a sweet old lady whom is kept up by tweets, IMs and texts from friends. So she did what many parents and special needs parents alike do every night. She gets into a tug of war over the iPad, tells the birds launching over the moon to go to sleep, enters the chambers of Doom and faces the new age bed time routine fearlessly…all while saying Good Night to every gadget that “lights the way for us to pee at night”.
Thanks to this book, our iPad went in for repair yesterday and we now have a much easier way to enter the bedtime war zone and tuck the technology savvy child to bed early, all three of them and here’s the best part…..without the gadgets or the tantrums!
Finally….Good night iPad, Good night…….everyone,
Michelle O’Neill, AHSS Skills Coach and Mother of a special needs child (plus 2!)
