DM Computer Trouble
Felonius Gru had brought a new computer for his house. He thought it would be useful for his job at the AVL. It came in handy for typing and printing documents and other sorts of paperwork. But Gru soon found that his brother and daughters were coming into his lab to play video games on his computer together. Before long the girls all needed their own computers for schoolwork. Emails, websites and social networking followed. Lucy found out about buying and selling on eBay a website that people and companies used to buy or sell goods, items could be bought for a fixed price, or sold to the buyer who offered the highest price and wanted a computer too. Even Agnes the youngest girl began played simple games on a unicorn themed computer.
Now it seemed to Gru that nearly the whole family spent most of the time on computers from early in the morning until late at night. Though it was Gru who first got the computer, it was Gru who finally had enough. He loved working alongside his wife. He loved defecting villains and villainesses. But he didn't love sitting in front of a computer. One afternoon, he came out of the lab with a headache from staring at the computer too long. ''Hello!'' he called, ''Is anyone there?''. He headed upstairs to look for someone to talk to. Gru came to the girls's bedroom. To his surprise he found Margo sitting with her head in her hands crying her eyes out.
At the same time, he could hear loud music coming from Edith's computer that she was playing on, she wasn't paying any attention to her sister's boohooing. ''What's wrong honey?'' asked Gru patting Margo on the back, ''What in de world happened?''. ''It's my stupid Facebook page!'' Margo sobbed, ''That awful Fredrick Murdoch from school wrote on it saying I'm a fuzzy faced hair ball for all my friends to see and now they're saying we're in love!''. She burst into tears again. Gru rolled his eyes, ''Computers'' he thought, ''Nothing but trouble!''. ''Come on'' he said to Margo, ''Let's figure out how deal with this on your Facebook page''. After attending to Margo, Gru turned to Edith still playing loud music and looking at ninja gear on a website. ''Aren't you supposed to be doing your homework?'' he asked.
''Don't worry Dad'' replied Edith, ''I'm doing it between checking out websites, see?''. She clicked her mouse and showed Gru her homework on the screen. Gru rolled his eyes again, he then saw Agnes on the floor playing a game on her computer. Gru went along the hallway to find Lucy on her computer too. Then the doorbell rang. ''Can you get that Gru?'' called Lucy, ''I'm busy bidding something on eBay''. Wearily Gru headed downstairs and opened the front door. There stood Ivon the mailman with a package. ''Thanks Ivon'' said Gru signing for it, he noticed the package was from eBay. ''You know Mr Gru'' said Ivon, ''You've got to get this eBay thing with Lucy under control. This is the seventh package this week. You're going to go broke. See you later''.
Gru rolled his eyes again. More computer trouble! He decided that instead of just rolling his eyes, he was going to do something about it. That evening after dinner, Gru made an announcement. ''I believe this family is having computer trouble'' he said. Everyone looked at him in surprise. ''What sort of trouble?'' asked Lucy. ''We are having trouble with emails, websites, Facebook, computer games and eBay'' said Gru folding his arms, ''We are spending so much time on computers that we don't even have time to say hello to each other these days''. Lucy had been worrying about this very thing herself. She just didn't seem to be able to tear herself away from eBay. ''Well'' she said, ''What are we going to do about it?''. ''Eet seems to me'' said Gru, ''Dat de big problem is de internet. Eet takes up too much time, gets us to spend too much money and eet can be dangerous!
Here look at dis''. He showed them the evening newspaper. 'Internet Child Safety Problems' said the headline, ''Eet says here dat people use the internet to get kids to do things dar aren't safe''. ''I guess we do need to have rules for the girls about the internet'' agreed Lucy. ''And I'm going to turn the internet off expect for one hour every day'' added Gru. ''Only one hour?'' said the girls. ''Dat's plenty'' said Gru, ''If you can't get done what you need to do on the internet in one hour, eet's not worth doing''. ''But what will we do instead?'' asked Margo. ''You can get back outside and play like you used to'' said Gru, ''You can play soccer, go skateboarding, ride your bikes, fly kites, go fishing, go for a five-mile hike, pick flowers, watch clouds, walk de dogs and de goat, play with minions, practice ballet moves and ninja skills, play board games, run around in circles and get dizzy, make mud pies, catch bugs, chase each other and scream!''. Margo, Edith and Agnes giggled. It sounded like fun. After school the next day, the girls did get to play outside like they used to. It was so much fun they told Jessica and Joshua to leave their computers and come outside too when they next met. They all went to the playground in the park for some good old fashioned exercise on the good old fashioned swings, the seesaw, the climbing frame, the slide and the merry go round. After dinner, the girls went online for just one hour and were surprised to find it was plenty of time after all.
Gru learned he didn't need to waste so much time online to get his work done. He was able to stay in the lab with the gadgets he loved. Freed from the spell of eBay, Lucy got out her sewing kit and started to work on a big quilt of flowers and butterflies. She got so focused she didn't go online even for one hour. When the internet hour was over, the family gathered in the sitting room in front of the fire place. They sat and read for a while. Lucy did some sewing and then wonder of wonders, they began to talk. They talked about all kinds of things. They talked about what happened in school that day about how Fredrick Murdoch apologized for calling Margo a fuzzy faced hair ball and hurting her feelings.
They talked about Edith's soccer practice after school and the terrific corner kick she'd bent right into the goal. Lucy told them about her plans for making beautiful new quilts and Gru told them how he had really gotten into a new batch of materials he had in the lab. Finally, all tired out, they got ready for bed.
The End