Step AWAY From My Computer!

It happens every time I let my kid touch my computer. I hate to be a bitch, but, invariably he does something that totally screws up my computer if I let him use it. The problem is -- (I forget between sessions) -- that I should NEVER EVER let him near it. It was easier when he was 6 or 7 years old, but now that he's nearly 9, he feels it's his unalienable right to be online all the time. All good and well, but it's my LIVELIHOOD, it's not a toy and it's not a game console. He's got an iMac, but tells me he wants a powerbook and doesn't want to be offline. Christ, I've created a monster.

Again, today, as I was actually allowed to use the TV for an hour (otherwise it's all his) to watch the Tom Peters thing on innovation, I let him use my computer to play games and God knows what he did, but the toolbar was up instead of down, there was something else going on where Help text launched on opening a browser window, something happened with the keyboard so I couldn't even login to email and there must have been some big gob of junk downloaded when he wasn't watching, it's slow as molasses.