Now, did you notice anything? Kids? Ok. A big yellow 7 year old bird? Good! Notice anything else? Were the kids outside?! AND they were PLAYING!!!! Keep this in mind as I continue to rant…

Yesterday, Christina Warren of Mashable.com wrote a piece praising Sesame Street and their Elmo iPhone app. Take a look:

Christina begins her article by saying:

Sesame Street is one of my favorite brands, not just because Grover is amazing, but because over the last 40 years, it has never been afraid of innovating and embracing new technologies.

To which I thought, absolutely! A quick search on my blog for ‘Sesame Street’ will reveal my love for all things Sesame Street as well! Calli and I have spent countless hours on the laptop watching and playing with our Sesame Street friends on sesamestreet.org! Even my very first column for Dad-Blogs was about Sesame Workshop‘s panwapa.com. (Feel free to visit the column here: Can You Tell Me How To Get To Panwapa Island?) So yes, I agree that Sesame Street is worth buying in to.

She goes on to talk about the app, and then this statement caught my eye:

On my running route, I see children in their strollers playing on iPhone or iPod touch devices. It’s amazing.

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The squeal of screeching tires sounded in my head and I did a spit-take. WHAT?! ‘Come on kids, let’s go to the park. You can play on my iPhone!’?

When I first saw that, I wanted to rant about the evils of technology and how Sesame Street shouldn’t influence kids to sit around playing with it. But then it hit me. Sesame Street is just taking advantage of how we as parents utilize technology in order to get their brand out in front of as many young eyeballs as possible. And it’s still a good brand. Sesame Workshop does a lot for our kids, and I would never discourage anyone from participating in that.

But iPhones in strollers?! Parents, please. What are you doing to your kids?

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology. I can’t rail against technology as I type my blog in to my laptop while I listen to Pandora and munch on my freshly microwaved breakfast. I’ve been known to hand my Blackjack II to my kid with a cartoon or game on. But I do that while we’re waiting at the doctor’s office or the DMV. And if we are at the doctor’s office, I look for toys. The dirtier the better. Builds up the immune system with antibodies. But I digress.

When at the park, dear parents, what ever happened to ‘Look, Junior, isn’t that a cute puppy?’ or ‘My, what a tall tree that is!’ If a kid is dexterous enough to navigate an iPhone app, I’m willing to bet that he/she is able to walk and explore the world around them. Why would you hamper that?

What do you think? Am I just flying off the deep end? Has my year plus of Daddy Blogging finally given me a self-righteous need to judge all other parents and find them inferior? How do you utilize technology in your parenting?

So here’s the scoop: around November, I changed my unlimited mobile data plan to what I thought was an unlimited tethering plan, so that I could hook my Blackjack II smartphone up to my laptop and use it as my modem. Bear in mind the unlimited misunderstanding was not an oversight on my part, I was told that it was unlimited by an AT&T salesman.

Fast forward to Christmas time. I’m laughing it up with my family and having a good time. We’re listening to Pandora‘s holiday mixes (Having grown tired of my own), streaming  the newest Muppet holiday special on hulu (because I had yet to set up my cable since we moved in November), and generally taking advantage of my unlimited tethering from AT&T.

Little did I know that it was anything but unlimited. I started recieving texts that I was reaching my limit around Christmas time. I ignored the first couple, then curious, I called AT&T to see what this was all about. The person on the phone that day assured me that there was a ‘soft limit’ of 5GB, but that any overages I had would not be charged to me. My next bill was $1,600!!!

WHAT?!

So I called AT&T back. This person tells me absolutely, the limit wil result in fees and I will possibly lose service if I continue my hedonistic streaming of music and video. He said this limit is set by the FCC. I have done a few Google searches on this and have come up with zilch. If you happen to know any more about this limit, please comment below!

Anyway, so I look in to their plans, and yes, it does say there is a 5GB limit, but it still says unlimited for their regular data plan which is half as much. Hmmmm….

So I call again, trying to figure out what they’ll do about this $1,600 bill! The next rep I get ahold of goes through the notes and sees where I was told about the ‘soft limit’ and sends my account on to some other department for review. My bill goes back to the normal level. But, now I’ve lost data service four days after my billing cycle for exceeding my limit, the first internet exile of nearly a month.

The next month, $2,000 bill. I’ve stopped watching hulu, streaming XM and Pandora, and even YouTube. What the heck. I haven’t given AT&T another dime until this is resolved. They suspended my service, phone and all, last week. I got them to turn it on Monday, because I still have a dispute and it has yet to be resolved. They waived the $36 reactivation fee. Whop-dee-freaking-doo! I have a pregnant wife at home, and really don’t want to go without phone service again!

So, here I am, blogging on what feels like ‘borrowed time’. If my online persona once again goes silent, this will be the reason. I’m now two days past when the last person I talked to told me this should be resolved.

Cross your fingers for me, and please, when considering data plans through wireless carriers, read all you can about it first!