The dilemma of raising children in the digital age.

Most of us joke about the digital age and how much things have changed from the time when we were growing up but no one knows how real that fact is better than today’s parents raising teenagers. It does not get any truer than a mother going shopping with a 12 year old who is bumping into everyone in the shopping aisle because they are busy glued to the screen of their iPad or mobile phone. For all the mothers out there who are old school, yes - 12 year olds have iPads these days so this blog post is definitely for you.

My heart goes out to parents when I hear things like this,

Parent: ‘’I need to leave office early today to attend a school talk at my daughter’s school.’’

Friend: ‘’Why what is it about? ‘’

Parent: ‘’Green Hill is giving a talk on how to parent children in the digital age.’’

I could not help but spin around to take a better look at the lady to make sure she actually fit the bill of what a parent looked like because my ears must have been playing tricks on me.

I have the privilege of working with an online retailer and I must warn anyone venturing into this industry if you do not enjoy, breathe and live technology; this is not the line of profession that you should be getting into. 

That is a side bar, now to get back to the issue at hand.

I recently went to the customer support room to respond to a customer’s query regarding an order placement of waist trainers. She was not sure what size she should order, I have the benefit of growing up with sisters so this was a relatively easy task of handling an uneasy female customer but while I was there I was privy to an interesting conversation.

C.S Agent: ‘’Good afternoon Sir, this is a customer support agent calling from….’’

Regular Male Customer: ‘’Yes, please.’’

C.S Agent: ‘’I would like to confirm your order you place today morning on our site.’’

Regular Male Customer: ‘’Me, no I did not place an order.’’

C.S Agent: ‘’Are you sure, this is because your account and mobile number were used to place the order.’’

Regular Male Customer: ‘’No, you are definitely mistaken.’’

C.S Agent: ‘’Okay, however another delivery agent was on their way with your earlier order from Friday last week. Did you receive it at your office?’’

Regular Male Customer: ‘’The gentleman came but I sent him away with the order.’’

C.S Agent: ‘’Yes, that is why we decided to call you a second time before this order left our warehouse to you. The last time after failing to reach you for 2 days we got a text confirming we should deliver the following day.‘’

Regular Male Customer: ‘’ No, I did not send any such text.’’

C.S Agent: ‘’Well sorry for disturbing you, I hope you have a good day.’’

Regular Male Customer: ‘’ Alright thank you.’’

Puzzled, the customer support agent thoroughly checked and rechecked all the records as well as purchase history of this customer to make sure that she has not gone mad. After some time another colleague of hers asked whether she had confirmed a new order from the same customer's account or she could take it since she was already familiar with the customer. 

She decided to make the call herself later that evening after regular work at approximately 6.45pm, only for a little girl to answer.

C.S Agent: ‘’Hello, this is Lisa calling from ..., who am I speaking to? ’’ She asked as she sensed it was a child who answered the phone.

Child: ‘’I am Daisy, how come I have not received my orders.’’

C.S Agent: ‘’Which orders?’’

Child: ‘’The one I placed last week and 3 other today.’’

C.S Agent: ‘’So you confirm that you have placed 4 orders in total.’’

Child: ‘’Yes I have and you guys tell lies you have not even called me to deliver to my daddy my stuff.’’

C.S Agent: ‘’Kindly, confirm for me. Are you using your dad's account and mobile details to place these orders?’’

Child: ‘’Yes, so that you can deliver to him and he pays for my stuff.’’

C.S Agent: ‘’Now listen to me, you need to stop making calls and orders with your father's account. If you cannot afford to pay for these orders in the first place you should not be making them. Also stay in school and focus on your education, otherwise if I see a call from you I will inform your father. Okay.’’

Child: ‘’Okay!’’ she responded in a faint voice evidently shaken.

We all looked at Lisa, stunned at what a stern warning she had given the teen girl - so much so that to do date; she has never placed another order. Sadly, we had to tell her father as he was worried there might be some fraud with his account and boy was he surprised when we told him who was accessing his account without his knowledge. So folks I have only two issues of concern to raise,

1. Parents please raise your children

2. Parents please raise your children

…because no one will and it will only be you who suffers in the end.