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Spending lots of money on back-to-school tech for your kids? Of course you want to hover.

This is the second in a three-part series about helicopter parenting and back-to-school tech shopping that Iā€™m writing asĀ Best Buy Canadaā€˜s parenting spokesperson. What does helicopter parenting have to do with back-to-school shopping anyway?

#permissiontohover

I think the truth is that we’re all a little helicopter. Even the most laid-back parents among us haveĀ something we like to have control over. For some of us, it’s food. Run all around the neighbourhood, but you WILL eat those vegetables. Safety is a huge one, of course. Families who have a cottage on a lake will have strict water safety rules you don’t want to mess with.

For me, the two areas I need to hover over are city traffic and technology. I will be crossing busy streets with my kids until they hit double digits and there’s no promise I’ll stop then. Drivers be crazy!

And, of course, technology is just a huge area of worry and confusion for most parents. We’re totally scared of it.

For one, the tech world won’t stay still. Tablets were getting smaller and then phones started getting bigger and laptops got lighter and you can still buy an e-reader just for books. How many gigahertzes do we need? What’s a Pentium? And why are we keeping things in clouds?

Of course, your kid isn’t intimidated by any of that tech jargon, is he? Most kids are more than happy to tell you exactly what they think they need. And just like anything they claim to really need, chances are pretty good it’s actually just something they want. Sure, you need new running shoes. But no, they don’t actually need to be Nike Air Max.

But unlike shoes or, say, a winter coat, it’s harder for parents to put they’re foot down and say this is all you actually need. Because we don’t really know, do we? And if our children need this technology to set them up for success at school, we don’t want to mess with that. So what happens is we often wind up listening to the kids and simply getting them whatever they say they need.

Listening to our children is a good thing. Dropping untold hundreds of dollars on a piece of technology without finding out for yourself whether it was really the best choice for your child and your family is not so good. And that is why Best Buy wants to give parents permission to hover right now.

When you go into Best Buy to shop for a new laptop, tablet, printer, phone case, fitness tracker, video camera or whatever it is you need, the staff are there to help you make sure you make the smart choice. You shouldn’t completely disregard what your child thinks she needs — she may be right — but you should probably talk to someone who is actually an expert on all the different makes and models that are available. (At Best Buy they carry all the different brands and don’t work on commission, so you really are getting impartial advice.)

Because it’s not just about deciding between a laptop and a tablet. (Which is totally hard enough, by the way! Do we really need to have both? Why do we have to choose between portability and functionality?) As our kids get older, their interests are going to be supported by different kinds of technology than some of their friends have. Is your kid into graphic design? Programming? Documentary film making? High-performance athletics? Or maybe you really just need a solid machine for the home for internet research and word processing andĀ that is all for this year, thankyouverymuch.Ā Whatever the case, front line staff will have the expertise to recommend the best product for your money.

Best Buy also has the Geek Squad, a team of specialized tech experts, who you can hire for any trouble shooting from set up to viruses down the lane. Seriously, you might even want to bring last year’s sluggish laptop to the Geek Squad counter to find out if they get it working better before deciding to buy a new one. It’s not always about buying a brand new product.

When it comes down to it, we are talking about spending significant amounts of money on our children’s education. Of course parents want to hover. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Big thanks again toĀ Best Buy CanadaĀ for bringing me on board. Last week I gushed about my experience in an actual helicopter over Toronto. Next week Iā€™ll be highlighting my favourite tech picks for this back-to-school season.

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Next level helicopter parenting. Yes, that’s an actual helicopter!

This is the first in a three-part series about helicopter parenting and back-to-school tech shopping that I’m writing as Best Buy Canada‘s parenting spokesperson. Okay, so fine. This first part is mostly all about how I got to spend all day riding around in a helicopter.

“You’ve written about being a parent in the helicopter age before and also about kids and technology, and we think you’d be a great fit for Best Buy’s #permissiontohover campaign.”

“That sounds great.”

“And you’re cool with conducting TV interviews from a flying helicopter, right?”

” … ”

“Rebecca?”

“Uh, sorry. Sure, that should be fine.” ***

(*** Very loose paraphrasing of the actual conversation I had with Best Buy’s pr team.)

Take off! #permissiontohover

Take off!

So it was all set. I was going to be Best Buy Canada’s parent spokesperson for their back-to-school campaign and all I had to do keep it together on a helicopter ride. (Actually, it was eight helicopter rides and I had to be at Billy Bishop airport just after seven a.m., if you’re playing along at home.)

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It’s important to follow your helicopter guide person so you don’t accidentally walk into the rear rotor which is practically invisible when it’s in motion. Ā GULP!

Luckily, my first interview of the day was with the lovely Akheela from the blog Create With Mom. It was nice to warm up with a friendly conversation with a fellow mom blogger before meeting with the bigger media outlets. Akheela interviewed me first and then we went up in the helicopter together to enjoy the view.

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Lifting off! Hello, Ontario Place. Long time, no see.

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Hello, breathtaking view of the skyline and the islands. Holy cow.

It was amazing! I practically bounced off the helicopter. The view was spectacular and the entire experience was even bigger and better than I imagined it would be. And the best part was that I was totally fine for the entire ride: no vertigo, motion sickness, or sudden paralyzing fear of heights. (Not that I was worried. Ahem.)Ā Bring it!

And bring it, they did. For my next interview Winston Sih from City TV, a cameraman, and myself all squeezed into the sweet little Best Buy chopper with the pilot and we talked helicopter parenting and tech while hovering above downtown Toronto. But it’s capital-L loud on a helicopter, so we also shot the interview from the ground just to be safe.

The next couple hours were a blur of on-ground interviews and in-air helicopter rides with a variety of print and digital media outlets. I was holding it together pretty well, I gotta say. In fact, five back-to-back helicopter rides on an empty stomach might be just the thing to shake off any pre-interview jitters. But that sixth ride. My goodness, that sixth ride puts the easy in queasy. (No? The sea in nausea? The ick in sick?) My stomach was finally, “All right, lady. I’ve been good to you all morning, but at some point you’re going to have to feed me.”

Luckily, it was time for lunch. Then a couple more interviews and rides later and we called it a day. I’ll say! Remember that my morning commute involves stopping at the coffee pot on my way down to my basement dungeon office. I could not have been further from the basement last week.

I’ll be posting a couple more posts on what helicopter parenting means to me and sharing my top picks for back-to-school tech in the next couple weeks. But, for now, I really just wanted to write about this once-in-a-lifetime experience. So lemme leave you with a few more pics.

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Classic T.O.

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Eastern waterfront. Sugar beach is down there somewhere.

Shadow over T.O. #permissiontohover

Shadows over Toronto.

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You can only get this shot from a helicopter, I’m pretty sure.

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Highways and condos and baseball diamonds, oh my.

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Ferries! Mini ferries!

I also shared a couple videos on Periscope, in case you just can’t get enough helicopter action.

Big thanks again to Best Buy Canada for bringing me on board. Next week we’ll be talking about why it’s okay to need #permissiontohover.