For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 06, 2023

The comic strip actually ages pretty well. April is a little young, but I have found my son and daughter are remarkably proficient with their cell phones and computers. My son had his first keyboarding class when he was 4 years old in preschool.

Coincidence. My niece was 3 or 4 when she learned about computers at pre-school and started showing my older brother (her father) how to use his new MAC computer. This was in the mid 1980s.

Why should it be funny or embarrassing to learn something from people younger than yourself? This is no critique of the writers. It’s more about the commenters.

My grandson just turned 2 and is proficient at playing games his 9 years old brother plays on his iPad and Switch. His brother started playing games on electronics around 3 years old and that was on a simpler Leapfrog device. He played some puzzles and coloring apps on my laptop when he was 18 months til 3 when I got him his Leapfrog. Just a few days ago I saw a reel on Instagram of three house cats playing in turns a game of scampering mice and they actually pawed on one mouse and the game restarted and the next cat had its turn. I was awestruck. House cats have evolved.

How humiliating!

Seems that kids today learn computer use before they can even read and write. And they STILL can’t write cursive!!

I recall getting introduced to computers at my insurance company. I was terrified I would forget to hit “Save” and lose stuff. No longer issue.

I’ll bet a lot of kids help their parents this way, even grandkids helping their grandparents. But it surprises me to see that Elly knows nothing, not even how to turn the durned thing on!

Those electronic cash registers are tricker than they look. Maybe Ellie needs the scanner and funny bars.

Why isn’t John or Elizabeth teaching her?

All the inventory of books at the book STORE are kept on a computer?

That’s funny. Just a week ago, when Elly was volunteering to work for free, Elly could be seen placing dozens of hard bound paper books on to book selves!

Yes, because playing a child’s game is the same thing as dealing with inventory..

Wait until QuickBooks arrives.

I believe children can hear in the womb.

Sorry for the comment, but for the little girl to teach her mother how to use a computer is embarrassing!

Hey, if she’s the expert…

My grandson at 18 months old figured avout the basics of the iPad in 5 minutes.

Must resist technology is my motto

Kids don’t need smart phones, there’s this thing called life, go out and play, 13 would be an appropriate age in my opinion. And yes, I’m a parent and both my kids turned out happy and successful with their own kids.

April can say ‘the", but not ’then’.

Many years ago showing a coworker how to use a computer. I told her to put in her phone number. She gave me the deer in the headlights look. Somehow the concept became alien because it was a computer.

I learned FORTRAN programming in 1973…using punch cards, one for each line of code. A program consisted of a stack of punchcards. Drop the stack of cards and you are sorting them for hours. But, it was better than the old jumpers on a peg board. My father mastered both methods.

The last 5 years I sold a house, rented an apartment, bought a car and deposited checks all without picking up a pen the documents were on computer and the signature signed by me after typing my name. The computer changed it to “one of the cursive” styles for the forms. It filled it in where ever the blank spaces are for you to sign. All legal documents.

We’ll know Elly has come up to speed, when she starts cursing bill gates.

April is a good teacher.

Good place to start.

Atta girl April………..

It used to be the kids would help you with the VCR

My computer hates me

I learned how to use technology (computer, smart phone) from my students, & video games from a young family member who was about April’s age at the time.

I remember when I first attended media broadcasting school and they took us into a makeshift radio studio and they were showing us the computer software they use to record and air broadcasts. And myself and many of the other students were baffled because they weren’t showing us the common office programs like Word and Excel. They threw us right into the lion’s den by showing us this program called Adobe Audition 1.5 which was primarily an audio software. And in the makeshift TV studios, Final Cut Pro was for students interested in making TV documentaries. AVID was for movie making. At the time, trying to comprehend all that was like trying to learn slang Mandarin Chinese! But from being resourceful, I found out that my job union was giving free computer classes so I jumped right on it because after I graduated, I needed to do my own resume and at the time, I was stumped. So if anyone out there is still baffled and frustrated with computers, it’s best to take a couple of courses on them and go home and practice, practice, practice.

Who knew the “kids showing adults how to use the computer” joke was this old?

Maybe Elle can take April to work with on a ’Take A Child To Work" request to her new boss. ;-)

And to think I wasn’t instructed about keyboards until high school! And that was fifty-plus years ago!

Yeah, that’s the way to do it.

Is Elly’s hair and dress meant to emphasize how out of touch she is?She looks like my great-grandmother…just needs the cameo at the neck!

There’s never a 4 year old around when you need one……

I would have thought she would have asked Lizard Breath.

I actually learned my first computer skills while working at a library in the late 90s.

She’s going to have a problem when she tries to use the work computers and there’s no alphabet game. Actually I like how this both works as a gag and a cute bonding moment. It can be that Elly is sincerely trying to learn computers from April, or that April hears Elly’s dilemma so she tries to show her a game to help and Elly goes along with it to make April happy.

How old are they now?

Isn’t that the truth!

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