His, Mine, OURS

I sat down at my computer and jiggled my mouse to bring my laptop to life.

The screen that came into view was new, and I looked closely.

It was on Amazon.  It appeared the search was for “mighty the armadillo sonic plush.”

Only one name came to mind: Declan.

I wondered if he was going to be asking for this new plushie, which would be a nightmare.  As happy as I am that Declan enjoys these plushies, getting them is a pill. 

In great anticipation, Declan waits for his Amazon package to arrive.  The door opens twenty times a day to see if there is a box on our front stoop.  There are multiple trips to the mailbox to see if a package has arrived.  There is looming at the front window to see if a delivery truck is coming.  Then, there are questions.

“Why isn’t it here yet?”

Which is where my Amazon comes into play.  I really should logout.  The child knows how to pull up Amazon on the computer and to see where his order is.  He knows how to follow the tracking.  He knows how to check the current date to delivery date yet feels “it might come early.”  And react when the item did not arrive as scheduled.

After weeks of this, Declan’s Easter present came in.  Mario plushies.  It felt like I could hang a banner “We Survived the Easter Presents of 2020” for how long they took to get here and how stressed Declan was each day checking for deliveries.

I looked closer at Declan’s current Amazon search and saw the item was not available for purchase and breathed a sigh of relief.  Whew!  Another anxious delivery diverted.

The elusive Declan knows he is not supposed to use my computer, but I don’t think that message has clearly sunk in.  To him, here sits a perfectly good device to answer the question that is burning in his brain.  The burning question always wins the internal battle of “should I or shouldn’t I?”

This boundary of his or mine was already a cloudy area.  For the past two years, I never had my phone as Declan was walking around with it, listening to YouTube, or his favorite songs.  I missed so many texts, calls, emails.  Of course, he could not be bothered to tell me someone was trying to reach me.  He learned if you press the “ignore” button, the interruption just goes away.  The solution?  I just got myself a brand-new phone for Christmas and turned my old phone over to Declan.  It went from mine to ours, to his.  I wonder if he realizes I am no longer asking for it.

In the course of working through a problematic website for soccer registration, I ended up having to use my email instead of our home email.  To keep all the information from this year with that of years past, I forwarded the emails from my account to our home account and was greatly surprised.

The emails came over like this: “dec and cate sonic plush love.”

I realized my Gmail was attached to Declan’s precious YouTube.  Declan had decided to name himself.  On my Google account.  The account from where I send emails. My mind wandered as I thought of ALL the people I had emailed as “dec and cate sonic plush love,” and I held my head in my hands.

I have since changed the name back to Robyn Coupe.  Three times.  Every time I do, Declan realizes and changes it back.  He is mortified to be known as Robyn Coupe.  I think the exact words are, “That’s just dumb.”  Little is registering to him about my email and how I don’t want to be known as “dec and cate sonic plush love.”  My email.  His YouTube.  OUR Google account?

The battle rages on.  So, if you get an email from something along the lines of “dec and cate sonic plush love,” it’s not spam.  It just means a little, completely computer literate individual has been working on my laptop or HIS phone and made some changes while I wasn’t looking 😊