You CAN Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

First, let me apologize to the matriarchs on both sides of my family for referring to them as dogs. These two beautiful women are anything but! Just a phrase, my dear moms, and one I use with the utmost respect and extreme pride in your accomplishments.

Both my mother and mother-in-law are in their 70's. Again, moms, sorry for outing your age, but we here at 50-something Moms Blog are candid about our number and proud of it to boot. So go with it.

Like most women of their generation, they did not work outside the home. As a result, it was never necessary for them to learn how to use a computer . Both of their husbands were forced into the internet age by nature of their businesses, but the women had no need to learn. 

They have spent the past few years in frustration due to their lack of knowledge of the internet. They felt left out when their husbands, children and grandchildren all spoke of email, google, facebook and twitter. Ok, maybe I am the only one in the crowd on twitter, but you catch my drift. What was most touching to me is that what drove them to want to learn was the pure desire to connect, the true essence of social media. 

Tired of depending upon their husbands each time they wanted to email a grandchild in college or read my blog posts, they each decided to take the plunge and learn how to use the computer. My mother-in-law took some lessons and I am proud to say she is up and running.

With my mom, I decided that this was a good way for us to spend some time together. I bought her a pretty notebook, wrote down each step as we did it and now she is up and running on email with a shortcut to my blog on her desktop.

It is heartwarming to see the change that has occurred for both of them. The confidence gained in learning something new, along with a sense of no longer being left in the dark has been amazing. I think they are both a bit surprised at how quickly they were able to learn. All those years of being left out of the loop made them feel as if this was going to be a daunting task.

The signature at the end of my email is an Eleanor Roosevelt quote:

"Do one thing everyday that scares you."

This is my favorite advice, at any age. I thank my moms for proving to me that learning never stops, even if it is a little scary.

Now I need to teach them to comment on a blog post so you can hear from them directly!

Original 50-something Moms Blog post. Amy Zimmerman also blogs at i could cry but i don't have time and leaving the zip code.