Kids Are Like Pop-Up Ads

Kids are like pop-up ads. That’s all I wanted to say and I think the sentiment is self explanatory. The end. 

Alright, I’ll flesh this out a bit. 

You’re having a conversation with another adult and suddenly, “pop!” into your field of vision appears a child. Like banner ads announcing you’re the winner of some grand prize, here is your child announcing something of similar value and inserting himself into the conversation.

And it’s not just in-person conversations but phone calls, when reading, when working around the house, or when going to the bathroom. It’s like they have a sixth sense for this.

They make pop-up ad blockers but blocking pop-up kids is harder. Like most pop-up ads, these kid pop-ups are mostly harmless, although left unaddressed they can turn malicious and create self-centered kids who interrupt and butt-in with impunity. 

Since you can’t automate a pop-up firewall for life, it takes the effort of slowly teaching kids when they need to control their pop-ups. This is harder done than said. First you have to lay the groundwork, and then you have to correct the pop-up in real-time. 

But, if you’re like me, this is hard to address consistently. For one, with at least four kids buzzing around at all times at least one of these kids is always popping up and at least one of them is always being ignored. 

When not ignoring them (i.e., encouraging them to use more aggressive pop-up methods), I overcorrect and over-address the pop-up.

It goes like this. I’m in a conversation with an adult and Kid 1 pops up. I ignore them and they go away. Then Kid 2 pops up and I make some sort of hand signal to indicate they shouldn’t interrupt and they go away. Then Kid 3 pops up and I sternly address them and their rude interrupting and send them off. Of course, Kid 3 didn’t do anything different than Kid 1 or 2, he just happened to come last.

I suppose if we’re pushing this analogy to the limits, kids are more like that annoying paperclip assistant (Clippy) that was on Microsoft Office products 20 years ago. They’re always asking questions, popping up at inconvenient times, and saying things they’re sure must be helpful but are just stupid. 

Kids of course aren’t trying to be troublesome when they do this. And it’s actually a pretty smart approach since they typically do get their needs addressed when they pop-up. It’s just not in line with polite behavior. 

So I’ll keep working on a kid pop-up blocker. But I don’t have much hope it’ll be effective. In the end we’re back to the beginning: Kids are like pop-up ads. The end.