I grew up watching The Jetsons Cartoon, and now I am LIVING the cartoon. Do you remember the Jetson family and how they had videophone devices that they could see other people on? Were they on to something? Did Roberto Garcia study the Jetsons’ device as he was creating FaceTime fun for real?
I’m still waiting on my own personal hovercraft so I can scoot to Illinois to have coffee with my bestie and then make it home for dinner, but we DO live with a luxury from the Jetson fam. As an Apple device family, we have taken full advantage of the FaceTime grandeur.
It first began for us with the occasional FaceTime call with our kids as they were in college, and we needed to see their face and get a sneak peek at their houses or apartments. It was so nice to be able to SEE where our kids lived and what they were doing. Since our older kids now have little brothers (thanks to adoption), the calls changed to letting them see the little boys. Since our big kids didn’t live close, they were able to still be connected to our littles at birthday parties, Christmas, and the important events in their lives.
FaceTime grew to be even more important when my son moved to the East Coast and knowing my love language is looking at the beach, I would routinely get FaceTime calls so I could gaze at the beach and long to be there. We would still call and talk on the phone some, but the FaceTime calls became more and more a staple in our relationship.
Then, my grandchildren entered the equation, and GAMECHANGER! Are you a grandparent? If you answered yes, then you need to jump on this bandwagon. My closest grandsons live about 2 1/2 hours away, and then I have one who lives 8 1/2 hours away. I don’t want to miss a thing being so far away. We still operate on the school schedule with our younger boys, so spontaneous trips have not hit our radar. Until they do, FaceTime is a must.
I’ve been able to see Knox eat pizza from his highchair, stand up, and even wave at me on FaceTime. FaceTime has given me the opportunity to see my Titus roll over and giggle when we play peek-a-boo and even take a bath. Our littlest guy is so little that the ink on his birth certificate is still wet, but I know many FaceTime dates are in our future.
FaceTime takes effort, and I am so glad that our kids have made it a priority to show our faces to their kids. We recently saw our grandsons for the holidays, and my husband commented that he really thinks the boys recognized us from our FaceTime chats. I like to think they did, too.
What are you waiting for? Join in on the FaceTime Fun!
Not an Apple device and FaceTime user? No worries! There are many options out there to join in the fun of seeing each other’s faces on screen. You can use Google Meet, Google Duo on the web, Zoom, Marco Polo, and more. You can even give the younger kids some freedom to connect with long-distance family with Facebook Messenger for Kids.
