Since the smarphones came to our bags and pockets life as we knew it has taken a 180 degree turn, at least in regard to social relations and one of the applications that may have influenced this change the most has been he WhatsApp and the rest of instant messaging systems that have lagged behind, like the famous Line or Telegram, to name a few.
They started being applications for teenagers and the occasional technological fanatic and in the end we all use it, -I would say that in our country there are more people without a car than without WhatsApp account-. But if there is a field where it has been a true revolution, it has been in Whatsapp groups of mothers and fathers, the best that has happened in schools in years.
I remember my years of school in which my mother was going to look for my sister and me at the door of the school and small groups of mothers were formed (the father who was going to look for the child at school was not overstretched). These groups formed by a minimum of four and an indefinite maximum of mothers moved between the door of the school and the nearest park or cafeteria, followed by a heterogeneous group of small infants who, like satellites orbiting around them, in search of some bollicao, toy or spherical with which to spend those energies that are so much left when we are small and for which we would give the right arm to have half of them at the moment.
And more or less it continues being this way, those "physical" groups of mothers who share children, parks and terraces survive in our days and I hope that it continues like this during a long time. But our day to day has become much more chaotic than those of those years. We go from one place to another, always in a hurry, always without time and this is what has raised the messaging applications to the level of essential In many homes.
System to avoid tripping
Before when one wanted to find out about the duties the child had, he asked one of the mothers who were there and then each one looked for life as he could. Other times, we were in charge of telling our parents that to celebrate the autumn day on Monday we had to bring some chestnuts and some leaves. Something simple if it wasn't because you remembered to say it more or less on Sunday at dinner time.
Now these things do not happen to us because there will always be someone in the group who will ask how many chestnuts they had to take on Monday or if the leaves should be large, medium or small and of a particular species or was a free subject. It is the advantage of being in permanent contact with the group.
In my case I have to recognize that I am not a very sociable person, and that my WhatsApp contact agenda prior to entering the school groups consisted of a dozen contacts, half of them being family members. Now I spend a day without looking at the cell phone and I find 37 messages in the group of my young son, 56 in the eldest, 120 in the joint birthday for the children of the month in class and a couple of them from the group of friends for Go out for a drink on Sunday. Yes, that is my life, in which I receive more messages about my children than about me.
Even so, I think it's a great idea about school groups. With how clueless my wife and I are, it is likely that my son was dressed as a chulapo to celebrate the arrival of autumn or lagarterano instead of pasture, the day of the Christmas play. Organizing birthday celebrations is now much simpler. For me it is a blessing to have a message with day, time, amount of the gift and reason for the party costume and someone who will be remembering you two weeks before and not having to ask about that, are you the mother? of the birthday?
As a parent organization system
I think it's the best thing ever invented. Example group conversation:
- Sorry, those sheets that said you had to bring for next week, does anyone have it?
- Fulanita left it to make photocopies at the stationery, but you can download it from the school page.
- Eye, I took him and the teacher told me that he was not that, that he was the one who brought a snail on the cover.
- Well, he told me it was the bear's.
- No, it's the snail's. Insurance.
- I make a copy of both of them, right?
- Almost better ...
- Thank you.
- By the way, have you seen the program ...
And here begins a conversation about the program that I played that day and that if you have joined the talk late you will have to review the 150 messages in case there is something interesting, while if you are there from the beginning and you are not interested in the talk , simply silence the group and your stuff, something that in a real group is much more difficult to do and in which you have to always look for a good excuse not to be like the father or the edge mom, something like "sorry, I I leave that I left the children in the oven "or" I just remembered that I left the tap open and the dog still doesn't know how to close them ", Is it or not a great advantage?
A most useful use: minimize the consequences of being late.
Who has not ever happened that things get twisted and you are late to pick up your child. It is possible that you have another mother's cell phone that you can call to see if she can pick up the child and wait for you to arrive, but surely when you have all the mothers in the class on any cell phone you will have to do the favor and thus avoid a major problem. I think that was called conciliation, or maybe not.
Keep in touch with the baby's nursery
Another of the uses that I have given to messaging is in the nursery school as a method of contact, knowing if there are diapers missing, if you have eaten well, if you have a fever or how it evolves. I know that there are centers in which, always within its right measure, one can know how his son is going through the morning and even see photos of his activities.
The negative part
Everything has its cons and the groups will not be less. In my case, I think the worst thing may be that you never know if the message that has reached you is important or not and that the inconvenience will always depend on the degree of education and knowing how to be with everyone in the group. Please, messages at one o'clock in the morning, no thanks.
