What a great week.

I’ve spent most of it talking about the results from a recent Telus commissioned Ipsos Reid Survey, which did for me what most parents are looking for when raising their kids: validation of doing something right.

Basically the results of this research confirmed a phenomenon which is happening in my house, and that is also happening across the country. At least according to the almost 4500 people Telus surveyed.

Their findings include:

o 75% of Canadian children in young families who use the Internet are proficient on it by age seven.

o 69% of Canadian parents think it’s important for children to be technology-savvy at an early age.

Sounds about right in my house – my seven year old son is a whiz at getting himself through various game and children’s entertainment sites, and his email (and spelling and typing) skills are improving by the minute. His first week back in school, he had to memorize his computer code. He needs to know how to do this stuff.

My three older children are better at finding things on-line than I am.

So, that’s maybe basic information you already knew.

But the best thing about these underlying facts?

We (Canadian parents) also think that a core value of technology is its ability to strengthen relationships.

Huh?

Oh yes, absolutely. In my house I thought it was a bad thing that my teens would text me from down the hall.

Not really.

You see, both teenagers and Moms have these things called “attitude” and “tone”. By the magic of texting, these can be eliminated. And, I’ve had conversations with my teens on their cell phones that we probably wouldn’t have had in person – without a door being slammed at any rate.

This in addition to the basic benefit of just staying connected by knowing where they are, and them knowing they can reach us almost anytime.

For more on the survey, read the news release here.

To read my interview with the Vancouver Sun on these findings, click here, and to see me talking with Sean O’Shea on Global News about it, click visit my website, and click on Where’s Kathy where you’ll find this segment, plus others.

Tonight, I’m heading down to do The Agenda with Steve Paikin. We’re going to be talking about whether women today are happier than they were in the 1970’s.

I’ll tell you what, keep showing me statistical data that proves I’m getting some parenting checkmarks, and I’ll be smiling a lot more.