I don't like to say "I told you so." It's not nice.
But I feel it a lot. And my greatest I Told You So moments are with my kids.
Yesterday I saw that my oldest daughter is moving her photoblog to Tumblr. When she first set up her photoblog on Blogger, it killed me. I said, "why not Tumblr?" She said, "I like the way Blogger looks." Now she is moving to Tumblr. Yesss.
This past weekend my son and I were on the couch in the family rooom watching football. He picked up his iPhone and checked his Twitter. Big smile. I tried so hard to get my kids to use Twitter. But it was always "Facebook is better for me dad." But the football players Josh loves aren't on Facebook, they are on Twitter. So he uses Twitter to follow them. Yess.
For years I tried to get my girls to shop on Etsy. They just didn't get it. Then last spring my daughter came home from college and told me that she was "addicted to Etsy." Turns out that she thinks Etsy is the best vintage store on the web. Yesss.
I care a lot about what my kids do. Because they are my best panel/focus group. We've made a bunch of investments in companies they don't use and don't understand. But over time they have adopted many of them. Of course, some of that may have to do with my incessant advocacy of the services we invest in. But I think that actually hurts me in the short run. Most teenagers don't want to be associated with stuff their parents like.
But I am proud to say that my kids have come around to many of the services we invest in over time. And when it happens, I am so tempted to say "I told you so." But I don't. I just bite my lip and smile.
