by Joey Lombardi posted in Mom Stories

It all started with lamps.
My wife and I bought two lamps for our bedroom last year. They are nice, but they are not easy to turn on from the bed. I bought wireless remotes for the lamps, but they misfired too much (I would turn on the lamp on my wife's side instead of mine).
I learned about Philips Hue. They seemed like a perfect solution for us. You can control the lights with your phone, no more misfires. Eventually, I realized you need to open an app every time you want to turn a light on (I know it is a stupid problem, let me have this).
I discovered that Amazon's Echo home assistant worked with my lighting system. Until this point, I made jokes with my nerd buddies asking "who would get one of those things if they already have a smartphone""
And then I got one.

It works. It works pretty well actually. But I am not here to shill for Amazon today, the reason I am writing story is that someone else in my house really likes the Echo...
My 4-year-old son.

He LOVES this thing. He comes into our room every morning saying: "Alexa, play music" and our day starts with a song. He constantly asks poor Alexa to tell him a joke. I am starting to hear repeats.
Like AI in science fiction novels, my son's use of AI is evolving. Instead of asking for any song, he recently started asking for "Old MacDonald". Once is cute. Twice is fine. But it is every morning.... Grumpy daddy hates that song, E I E I O!
O...