Liam and Ryan

August 2020 

As most of you parents can relate, my young child is somehow naturally adept at navigating tech devices, and Liam's preference is Youtube.  He goes through stages of what he likes to watch, starting a while ago with music videos from the movie Sing, then coloring videos from the same movie.  Somehow Liam discovered a kid YouTuber.  His name is Ryan, he's about 6 years old I'm guessing and he makes videos with his parents: Ryan'sToy Review, Ryan's World, etc.  He was so obsessed that my first thoughts were, "Oh this is silly, no more of these videos".  But wait... is Liam watching another kid play so different than  me watching someone cook on TV or get a makeover?

So, because we are still in a pandemic and it's hard, Liam (like so many) has been watching too much tv.  And I realized something interesting... perhaps "Ryan" was actually GOOD for Liam.  Was he learning some skills? Liam started initiating play and conversations that he hadn't before.

"Mama, let's play hide and seek!"

"A challenge. Who win, mommy or daddy?"

"Do you like spaghetti? Do you like cookies? Do you like spaghetti with cookies?"

He set up pillows between the two bedrooms and then jumped on them pretending the ground was hot lava.

Liam also went in the kitchen on his pwn a couple of times to make Mom pancakes and write a note saying "I love you Mami", because he saw Ryan do this. 

I'll try and not think that Ryan is the only friend Liam is seeing during the pandemic, and try to view it as him learning play and social skills.  

OK, it's now January 2021

Liam dressed as Ryan for Halloween. Too bad he had recently had his first Pandemic haircut, because before the cut he had the same shaggy, long hair as his favorite You Tube sensation!

The Ryan kid I think is a millionaire and the business has created a million and one things cheaply made from plastic that you can buy at Target or Walmart.  But I let Liam use his own money to buy a "Mystery Egg".  It made him happy. And for Christmas, he got a Ryan figure and a watch.  Let him enjoy his obsession, but now I am NOT buying any more stuff!  

Liam still loves watching the videos but I am not sure if he is still "learning" from them. Maybe.   He certainly was very brave in the swimming pool when we went on a family weekend in October (yes, Ryan is in the pool a lot).

Maybe though.... if a child with a learning disability can lean a lot from these fun videos, maybe we should become YouTubers as well!  Maybe we should turn this around and start being the CREATORS of the content!  Lupe is getting skilled using her iphone...  I honesty think this warrants some thought...