Digital Darlings

By Marni Elyse Katz
May 17, 2010

I swore I’d never be one of them: a hopelessly befuddled parent that couldn’t record a television show on her own. My dirty little secret? I am that mom. We recently turned our playroom into a more useable family space, complete with comfy sectional and flat screen TV. While I was quite adept at TIVOing to my heart’s content on the old setup, our new system leaves me utterly confused. So much so, I’ve given up television in favor of downloading (and paying for) my one must-see show from iTunes (it’s “Gossip Girl” if you must know), and watching it on my laptop. Pathetic. No, not just my TV show of choice, my absolute inability to turn on the TV. There are five remotes! But I digress. The point is, my eight-year-old son has no such challenges. Click, click, click and “The Clone Wars” is blaring. His facility extends to the computer too.

Like any boy his age, left to his own devices, he’d never leave his laptop. Obviously his time there is très restricted. (So what if I’m glued to my computer—it’s my job!) In addition to LEGO video games and the bizarre arctic world of Club Penguin, both he and his brother love shopping eBay. No, they don’t actually buy stuff (they get my husband to do that for them), but they love the thrill of the hunt, and all the great stuff they can find that simply isn’t in stores.

I surveyed other moms to see if their kids were similarly intrigued. Absolutely. I discovered an eleven-year-old techie who bought sodium acetate on eBay to construct his own science experiment and an eBay-loving nine year old with an affinity for traffic cones. Another kid asked for a giant “Moose X-ing” street sign he spotted on eBay for Christmas.

I put out a call to friends and acquaintances across the country to see what their kids were coveting. Here’s what I found:

Ellie & Elizabeth

“They would buy nothing but tutus and fairy dreck, all day long. In fact, most of the awful tattered, poofy satin party dresses they insist on wearing 24/7 have come from eBay. ‘You mean your kid only wore this once on Christmas? My kid will sleep in it for the next two years. Sold!’” —Ellie & Elizabeth's Mom

NEW Fairy Princess Pink Tutu Wings, Wand, Headband (buy it now price, $14.99) “With three daughters it’s tutus, tutus and more tutus at our house. Plus fairy wings.”

Rare Editions Girl Holiday Party Tiered Dress (starting bid, $0.99) “Dresses like this make up the bulk of their wardrobe.”

Burgundy Girl Victorian Christmas Dress (buy it now price, $17.99) “They beg and plead for getups like this, but hello! You climb trees wearing these. $5 is my upper limit. Put on some overalls for Pete's sake.”

Jake

"I have a 14-year-old that browses eBay—oh yeah and he ‘accidentally’ bid on an iPod because he said he ‘didn't think he would win.’ $240.00 to the debit card. Nice..." —Jake's Mom

iPod Video 80GB With Apple Warranty & Freebies (buy it now price, $219.99)

Jack

Risk Classic War Game 1999 (buy it now price, $29.95) “Jack slept over a friend’s house last week and came back asking for the strategy game Risk. At the store we saw Halo Risk and Risk in a fancy wood box (at a fancy price), but he insisted it had to be Classic Risk, specifically the one with little soldiers. When we got home he found one on eBay.” —Jack's Mom

Julian

“Yesterday Julian was going on about a very old transformer, a hand-me-down from his older brother. After being thrown in a plastic tub for many years—in and out of cold storage—it was broken. He begged me to look online for a new one—but it had to be exactly this model. Wow, there are a lot of websites completely dedicated to cataloging transformers. We finally found the one he wanted—on eBay.” —Julian's Mom

NEW Transformers ROTF Legends SOUNDWAVE Loose (buy it now price, $9.99)

Cam

“Cam collects baseball cards and uses eBay to value them. When he gets a new batch he will often go to eBay to see how much they are worth. His prime motivation for collecting them—beyond his obsession with baseball—is that his cards could be worth a lot of money someday. Highly unlikely, but it's good for boys to dream!” —Cam's Mom

1992 Manny Ramirez Pinnacle Rookie Card #295 (buy it now price, $54)

Ben

Star Wars Miniatures Champions of Force Darth Bane (buy it now price, $29.98)

“Darth Vane is so powerful that he’s practically indestructible. Usually the guys with light sabers can’t do as much damage as he can. He’d definitely be my most powerful guy. Can I get him? Pleeeease…” —Ben

Rosie

“One of Rosie’s favorite activities on the computer is to come up with something she wants (a wall calendar, ice skates, a new family car) and then type it into eBay and see what comes up. These days she has a tween-ie desire to turn her bedroom into a ‘lounge’ so she spends a lot of time searching for cool pillows to make it more of a funky hang-out space.” —Rosie's Mom

NEW Yellow Indian 26" Floor Pillow (buy it now price, $38.99)

Drea

"Drea loves eBay. We won a bunch of Beanie Baby cats that she found for a song. She and her sister have had a blast with them. Unfortunately we had major drama on her birthday when she desperately wanted a lot of 220 beanie babies and we lost it at the very last second. She was heartbroken.” —Drea's Mom

Lot of 425+ Ty Beanie Babies (starting bid, $.01)

** Photographs of the children featured provided by their parents. **

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