A Blundering Tourist In An IT Savvy World

I'm trying to set up a website...and failing. And its very, very frustrating because generally I think I'm a pretty smart person and should be able to do anything I set my mind too. The website promised me it was a simple exercise - choose a domain, purchase a hosting package and then using their software, in 3 easy steps, you'd have a web presence to rival Google. Choosing a domain name was easy - and remarkably available. Purchasing a host package was easy - I am well trained in the martial arts of credit cards (black belt 8th dan). But the easy steps were not so much as 1, 2, 3 but more a case of PHP,  FTP, SSH and SQL... Here's three letters for you... WTF? 

I don't think its as simple as saying that I'm not technical... I have a Masters degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics for goodness sake! Numerous studies have been done that highlight the many and varied skills / roles a mother needs to have; combine that with working and building a career and surely I'm equipped to handle anything from negotiating World Peace to building a submarine, to scale, out of the contents of my handbag? And in fact neither of those 2 options scare me, name a day and my only issue would be what would I do in the afternoon?  But something goes wrong with my computer and I come over all pathetic and look for the nearest bloke that's into all that kind of stuff... (Disclaimer I'm sure there are many perfectly capable IT savvy women - I just don't know any...)

I have a curious interest in Generational Psychology and read many Baby Boomer, Gen Xer, Millenial articles but one of the best I read was about the Tech Gen. These are children that are born into the computer age; children who will never know anything different. They described them as being native in the language of computers. For us lesser mortals who's Dad bought them a ZX81 and Vic 20 as cutting edge technology as a young'un, no matter how much we learn, study or experience we will never be a native and always speak the language with an accent. 

It also comes back to your comfort zone, its easy to do stuff when its familiar - I get up every day, organise 4 kids lives and in between all that hold down a full time (and currently rather stressy) career without thinking. This world is full of kids that sit creating the most amazing web sites in their bedrooms as something fun to do after school because that's what they know. 

So does all this mean I am doomed to not be Super Human and there are some things in life that I should just give up and get someone else to do it? Probably I should, it would be done quicker, better and with less stress. But that seems to defeat the object of personal achievement, development and accomplishment. This is actually something I want to do and I want  my girls to see that life isn't always easy, that sometimes just throwing money at a problem is not the answer and sometimes, just sometimes  even if what you create is, well frankly a bit crap, thats actually not the point. And to make sure my determination didn't waver I did the one thing you should never do unless you are completely committed. I told my girlies what Mummy was doing and now, not only do they desperately want to see it but they want to help too.

So tomorrow I will try again, I will have friends on standby to translate and maybe as I blunder inelegantly as a tourist through the world of IT with my girlies looking on, I am doing my bit to create a new comfort zone for my girls as they grow up being able to stand side by side with all the other tech gen natives.

And when, in 30 years time their kids ask them how they managed to learn to build websites maybe they could reply "Yeah my mum taught me when I was little" without ever fully knowing the truth....