When Did Alexa Become My Babysitter?

Let me rephrase that to “So when did Alexa become my pseudo babysitter?” ‘Pseudo’ because she cannot physically engage my child and also because she cannot take initiative. And thank God for that. Imagine her saying“R, let me wipe your bum”. Hell no! We need to establish boundaries here lady! 

The other day we had an internet outage from 8am to 5pm. It was a weekday and yes my husband was busy on work calls whilst intermittently hurling euphemistic abuses to the general lack of the internet amidst the lockdown, how is he supposed to work from home and so on. Funnily enough, I wondered the same. How am I going to keep our toddler entertained - one who decided to drop his afternoon nap just before lockdown commenced and one who can tolerate only that many Montessori based activities! Oh of course I should read to him and I do but there’s only so much of effective reading I can do with a screaming baby hanging off my hip!  So, that’s when reality really hit me. I have come to depend on Alexa. I take it for granted that she recognises and follows R’s requests which are sometimes like instructions- “Alexa, fart” (you can thank me later!).

Honestly speaking, Alexa is wonderful once you get to know each other. She’s like this really old neighbour who loves to entertain your kids but has a hard time hearing and/or comprehending what you have to say. “No thank you, I do not at this moment care how cold it is in Sweden” I just want you to play baby shark. Really? Sweden? Come on!

Oh do you know there’s a Nursery Rhymes station? We got to know a few nursery rhymes which we were completely clueless about previously. Go ‘Postman Pat!”. Also, she plays Peppa Pig songs as well as the good old ‘Lakdi ki kaathi’. She does try to upsell her services though thanks to, let’s call it her ‘employing agency’. She tried selling R a ‘fart pack’ recently. She will ask very slyly, ‘would you like to buy this? Yes or No?’. It’s a toddler trap! Beware! I mean are you serious madame? Yes or No? Do you think a toddler will say ‘Maybe?’ or even better “Hang on, let me check with Mummy or Daddy?’ What are the chances of the toddler saying ‘Yes!’ or as R says ‘Yes pleeease’. 

One Alexa feature that we absolutely love is that of Audible books. I am so thankful for this as there have been many afternoons during this crazy lockdown when R has been thoroughly engrossed in an Audible story book. He loves enacting the stories with book characters and props. The Gruffalo and Room on The Broom remain firm favourites. 

We also have fun dancing sessions where we play a variety of songs and just let loose. R is a tad shy but he has pleasantly surprised me on many occasions by asking Alexa to play a song and then saying “let’s dance mummy!”. I maybe in the midst of cooking but I allow myself those few minutes of unparalleled joy as I don’t know for how much longer he will ask me to dance with him! 

It’s amazing how R has also come to rely on Alexa a little to soothe his sometimes disgruntled baby brother. R will ask Alexa to play his baby brother’s favourite nursery rhyme (or one that we think is his favourite based on his consistent happy expressions and responses) and sing along to the rhyme. It gives me enough time to abort whatever chore I’ve been doing to go attend to the situation at hand. 

I cannot stop myself from viewing this with my Psychology hat on. Children need social connections and in their absence or limited presence, they seek out these pseudo human connections, in our case it’s Alexa. Just last week I asked R, “R, do you miss your nursery teachers? Miss Alison etc?” He very thoughtfully replied, “Mummy, we don’t have Miss Alison now, only Alexa”. So, let me leave you with that very deep thought as I rush to prevent R from buying that fart pack!