Think Friday night, 11 pm, you and the hubs, empty house.

Exactly!

What better scenario for a round of sending asinine snapchats to your young adult kids who are off doing their own thing, i.e. having a life.

Huh?

Hubster and I took full advantage of our golden opportunity last weekend. Pillow talk isn’t half as tempting as engaging with a little white ghost flaunting face and voice changing super powers.

We played with Snapchat for an hour. By ourselves. Laughing like fools.

Sure, we could have used our time wiser, perhaps engaging in something scandalous. But we didn’t.

Our favorite feature of Snapchat is the ability to alter video images by utilizing specific photoshopping graphics available in the app. Amusing ourselves with torqued faces, ridiculous costumes, and slow-mo speech provided all the bonding needed. After twenty-four years of marriage, love masquerades in surprising fashion.

And the best part was finding out how much our crazy antics entertained our kids. All three of them laughed so hard they cried. Who knew?

Apparently getting parent snaps takes the humor to a quantum level.

After initiating our kids with our snapping prowess, using the app is now one of our favorite family activities. We get snaps in the middle of the night from our kids and we send them zaney pics and videos on the regular.

According to our kin, the better half and I are Snapchat experts. Therefore, we initiated several of our adult friends into the masterclass group at a recent party. Think room full of fiftyish empty nesters writhing in laughter over smushed cheeks, squared jaws, alien foreheads, and bumble bee glasses. Instant classic.

In lieu of my positive experience with the app, I came up with 10 reasons parents should use Snapchat with their kids:

1. It’s fun. Duh.

2. Your kids will realize you aren’t as boring or lame as they pretend you are.

3. You will get to see a goofier side of your child.

4. The face distortion reminds humbles you.

5. Engaging back and forth with your kid helps you connect in a lighthearted way.

6. The app is a short form of communication kids like to use.

7. Allowing yourself to laugh is good for the soul. Laughing with your family even better.

8. Life is full of messes and this isn’t one of them.

9. If you can’t beat technology, join the ranks.

10. It’s really fun. Duh.

The benefits and joys of playing with Snapchat far outnumber my short list. As you partake in the fanfare you will create memories and bond with your kid in surprising ways.

And one of the great aspects of Snapchat is regular updates of the image altering feature. Parents and kids are constantly offered fresh distortions, wacky overlays, and altered speech mechanisms to crack up about.

So step-aside young ones who think parents are out of date. We may be ancient in your eyes, but these old souls aren’t dead yet. There’s a heap of goofy underneath our wearied faces.

Looks like middle age is the new millennial. Who said Gen-X wasn’t savvy? Face swap that!

Thanks, Snapchat!

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