How to be Hip With Kids

There we are, as you may have gathered I am over the hill - rapidly approaching my 31st birthday which, according to the EU legislation, means I have been officially classified as 'middle-aged' since I was 28. Depressing thought, but as my job is to design toys for kids I have a great excuse never to grow up - which makes it all the harder to think about becoming 'mum' one day. Somebody calling you that sure puts things in perspective, so post-poning that life changing experience at least for now.

What's funny is the way we get progressively more unable to understand how kids speak, (or abbreviate words when txting - l8er allig8or)... the older we get and furthermore if we try to do it ourselves (to appear with the times and less embarrassing to the kids we are speaking/txting to) we ourselves feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. Similar feeling as when being under-aged and trying to sneak into a pub, fearing detection all the time..

Tricky situation, and sooner or later you will receive a nifty teen word texted to your phone, which will have you showing it around in the office in an effort to decipher what it may be an abbreviation of. So I don't try anymore, just need to refer to the great AOLer Translator to turn any comprehensible text I write into hip net-savvy txtspeak and appear cool with the kids. To be entirely honest - I don't, they can put up with dinosaur me who doesn't GET IT, but tries anyway - nevertheless, this site is still excellent.

Here's an excerpt of what I wrote in the translator:

My text (hey I had to think of something!): Hello dear Digital Digressions reader from sunny (for once!) England. It is Thursday, before a nice bank holiday weekend (bank holidays mean you can have Monday off without feeling guilty because the whole country does it!) and I can't wait. Planning to do very little, put in some decent rounds on the road bike, do little else and hopefully sit in the garden armed with several alcoholic beverages to keep me company..

The Translator: H3LO D3AR DIGITAL DIGRASIONS R3AEDR FROM SUNY (FOR ONC3)1!111! OMG LOL ANGLAND1!!!!111 OMG WTF IT IS THURSDAY BFORE A NIEC BANK HOLIDAY WEK3ND (BANK HOLIDAYS M3AN U CAN HAEV MONDAY OF WITHOUT FELNG GUILTY B/C TEH WHOLE COUNTRY DO3S IT)!1!!!!1 OMG WTF AND I CANT WATE1!111 OMG PLANNG 2 DO V3RY LITLE PUT IN SOME D3CENT ROUNDS ON TEH ROAD BIEK DO LITL3 3LSE AND HOPAFULY SIT IN DA GARDAN ARMAD WIT SAV3RAL O BVARAEGS 2 KEP ME COMPANY.!!!!!!!!1!1

Needless to say, I'm not sure the above 'hip' language is anything to aspire to... makes for some tedious reading in the long run...

Comments

[editha]

No, can't do translator. hip can't be the same as smarting it -- too much for me as a mom of 3 hip kids, and i won't ever be cool trying to pass off as one!! nice try though.