As a mother who carefully controls how much time her children spend in front of televisions and computers, it has come as quite a surprise to me, and I think to my children as well, just how much I have embraced today's smartphones and tablet devices.
I can schedule my life on them, and easily keep in contact with friends. They also allow me to juggle three children by myself in the early hours of a Sunday morning, when my husband is away on a business trip and my helpers are about to leave for their day off.
I can load the tablet up with some brain box apps and get us all sorted for the day ahead safe in the knowledge that my children are learning and interacting, rather than simply watching.
These devices ensure that I can safely survive a reasonably long MTR train journey with three little ones in tow and without the need for heavy books, games and other goodies to keep them all occupied. On the tablet, they can read, listen, play and learn; while I jiggle a fractious baby on my knee.
I have been helped in this guilt-free existence because my eldest child's primary school now uses tablets in the classroom some of the time. We have the same apps downloaded at home, so when he is on them in the house, there's no need for me to feel guilty - it's almost like homework. We once spent an hour exploring videos online about life cycles.
Another time, as we munched through a bowl of pistachio nuts, my eldest child asked me where the nuts came from and what the plant they grew on looked like. So we looked it up instantly and explored the Middle East on a virtual map as we followed the path of pistachio plants across the globe.
And while we still love to spend rainy afternoons exploring our local library, we don't have to make a trip there just to find out how tall sunflowers can grow, where the fish in the lake in the park go in the winter, or how big or small a hummingbird's egg is.