No - you can't do that, I insisted.
Yes - we can do this, they would hurl back.
It never ended satisfactorily for anyone - except that my eldest daughter is in college and my high school son is doing well academically. As for my 2-year-old - well, let's just say she knows her way around an IPhone. (I'm so losing this battle.)
I was thinking about this "debate" between parents and their kids - as I watched the Giants game on TV and kept abreast of the news on my IPhone. Did more than keep up, actually. I added a comment to my Facebook page, and even Tweeted something (@BillRitter7) - about how I was watching the Giants game, but that my mind was on the tear-inducing Gabby Giffords video announcing her resignation.
The number of "comments" surprised me - because most of the people seemed to be Tweeting or Facebooking AND watching the Giants game. Just like I was doing.
Media consultants (and you know what they say about "consultants" - guys who know how to make love 49 ways but don't know any women) call this the "two-or-three screen" experience. Folks are now engaged in multiple screens at any one time.
Does it foster the increased incidence of ADHD? Maybe. Is it reality in our fast-paced multi-media world? You betcha.
So that's the prologue to our coverage tonight, which will include the Giants remarkable comeback from a dead-in-the-water 7-and-7 record team - to a Super Bowl-bound NFC Championship team. A stunning victory - a squeaker - over the San Francisco 49ers last night.
There was so much defense, you would have thought the Pentagon was in charge.
The first debate - sparked by Gov. Chris Christie who threw out a logical question via Twitter, who called the team the "New Jersey Giants." They do, after all, play in New Jersey, even though New York is in their name.
Go figure.
We'll have the latest on Giants fever. Rob Powers leads our coverage, tonight at 11.
We'll also have the latest from the campaign trail, where for the first time ever three different Republicans have won the first three contests in the Presidential primary. And now Newt Gingrich, who was given up for dead, cameback, and was given up for dead again, has now come back. Again.
There is some talk about heading into the GOP convention in August with no candidate with enough delegates to secure the nomination. It's way too early to make that call - but the fact that some pols are talking about that possibility shows just how wide open the process is as of Jan. 23.
And Nina Pineda has some helpful tips about how to make sure that dog you buy from your local pet store is healthy and not sick-as-a-dog (pardon me).
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's Accuweather forecast – and a look at the snowstorm that hit us over the weekend.
I hope you can join Liz Cho (in for Sade Baderinwa) and me, tonight at 11.
Subscribe to my page on Facebook at facebook.com/billritter.wabc.
