Family Time In The iCity

I took my 9-year-old son Andy and a 4th grade classmate to Applestan on the Upper West Side over spring break. It was a great idea and one sparked of necessity rather than actual ingenuity on my part.

I’m completely inept when it comes to computers (and entertaining short people, sometimes referred to as “children,” for that matter), so I scheduled a Genius Bar appointment and two free MacBook Pro workshops for myself that happened to fall on the second day of spring break. Total time: about six hours with a lunch break around the corner. Although I initially considered offloading Andy with his friend and sparing him the always enjoyable shopping-with-Mom experience, I remembered that I’d actually met my son and his buddies and that a half day of uninterrupted screen time would’ve topped their Make-A-Wish list.

For a nanosecond, I worried about letting two fourth-graders roam thousands of square feet on their own, but only a fully-outfitted fireman would have been able to get them away from electronic ecstasy—and then only by slinging a child over each shoulder. Plus, it was a weekday and the store was as empty as it ever gets, which meant uninterrupted sight lines of the exit doors.

While I tooled away in the white-walled store, Andy and Max wandered around testing out nearby iPads. Later, the boys went to the small children’s table downstairs to check out new games and charge the iPads they had brought from home for some Clash of Clans combat time. (Apparently a player’s account is linked to a specific device and isn’t transferable to whatever hardware happens to be at hand.) Andy said most of the apps on the store’s kiddie iPads were too elementary for him and his friend. But with devices elsewhere bearing loads of games and activities such as Temple Run, I’m sure they could’ve entertained themselves even without their own electronic security blankets. So while the boys were happily occupied at e-war; I was blissfully free to do my own iThing. (For some more wholesome fun though, kids can take photo organizing workshops with their parents—another vacation activity for the fam!)

Sure, I get that Apple stores are designed to indoctrinate future devotes–and I’m fine with that. (It’s not like my boys aren’t already lobbying to get their own iPhones.) Besides, for the first time in almost 10 years, I felt like I was single–no one whining about being bored. No one needing the bathroom. No requests for water or food. No pleas to leave.

I know–it was pretty much unbelievable. Now let me offer just one tip: If you plan to bring your own device for an afternoon in Appleland, make sure to bring along a charger. The first time I heard from Andy and Max was when Clash of Clans had sucked them down to 5% juice. Then again, perhaps you should leave the charger at home. Even when they were running on fumes, the boys still gave me the reflexive just-five-more-minutes-pleeeeeease-until-I-finish-this-one-thing plea.

And you may want to check out Apple Camp:

In addition to a kids’ play area and workshops, Apple stores offer free three-day (partial-day) summer camps in which children aged 8-12 learn to make short films with iMovie. Dates usually are posted in early June for July and August workshops. Click here to sign up for schedule and registration alerts.

Hillary Chura writes our Le$$er Parenting column where she helps New Yorkers parent for less. She lives in Manhattan with her sons and husband.