The Next Generation Really Scares the Hell Out of Me.

Case in point: my wife bought my three-year-old daughter a cloth Dorothy doll (of Wizard of Oz fame) a while back, and noticed today while the midget was playing with it that the doll for some reason had gigantic ears that were tucked under her hair. The subsequent exchange went like this:

My wife: Hmm…I think we’d better put those ears back in under her hair; they’re pretty big.

My daughter [to Dorothy]: Yeah, Dorothy — you’d better go get yourself some smaller ears on eBay!

Um. Wha? Oh, man…

I should also note that the munchkin can turn on her own little computer — a repurposed throwaway from my old company with the fonts cranked up to huge, a cute pink mini-keyboard and mouse, and iTunes (she’s gotta have her Gogol Bordello and that Kenny Loggins classic, “One Small Voice”…) and some kiddie games installed on it — and even click on the icons for the Baby Einstein Website (she likes the free video clips) and start up her Teletubbies “game.” Which is, sadly, more than my mother-in-law can currently do with a computer. Damn.

Seriously, the generation of kids growing up now, where computers, the Internet, and MP3 players are as ubiquitous as water are going to be freakin’ sca-ry. Bet on it.