Ross: It’s time to put the phone down

First, you have to understand a little about the environment I grew up in.

My dad was an amateur musician, so there was always a tape recorder in the house.

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Dad made hours of tapes of his jazz band, and as the kids were born, he taped us too – learning to talk, singing. I taped my first interview at age four, introducing my Dad playing his guitar – and then interrupting him before he was finished because it was time for “station identification.”

He also had a movie camera – 16 mm, then 8 mm, then videotape. He was everywhere, recording birthday parties, cocktail parties, family vacations, skits with us kids, and eventually documenting the grandchildren so that we had hundreds of hours of these family tapes. And it was pretty cool seeing ourselves.

So, I guess in a way, he was preparing us for the world we live in today, where everything is recorded.

And, of course, now that I have grandchildren, I am following his example. The moment I sense something cute is about to happen, out comes the phone.

And then yesterday – I jumped the shark.

As I was recording a certain two-year-old playing her toy drum kit … she stopped playing and announced she was done:

CHILD: … put the phone back.”

Put the phone back.

Her generation will never know a time when you couldn’t see who you’re talking to on the phone, she’s already seen herself on video many times, and at the age of two, she’s already over it.

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Put the phone back.

She was absolutely right. She has a right to privacy.

But it’s is going to be hard because this kid is even cuter than I was.

And so, I guess from now on, I’m just going to have to put the phone away and rely on memory.

Unless I can figure out a way to hide it in one of her bunnies. But no, that would be wrong.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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