Alexa taught my son to say his name

We are an Alexa household. Mike loves the idea of a “smart” house, and Alexa was our first step toward that. I’m a…later adopter…so I didn’t take full advantage of her offerings right away. Still don’t, actually. I mostly use her to play music and set timers, despite her numerous other abilities. But Teddy was right there with his dad. He learned early on the hilarity of asking Alexa to play “nothing”. Evidently there is a song called “Nothing”. But he also loved having Alexa play his favorites. Through his own profile, Mike set up a playlist called “Teddy”, full of songs Teddy loves that he could listen to as he fell asleep each night. Once he realized Alexa’s capabilities, he eagerly commanded her to play his eponymous playlist during the afternoons as well.

Except, until the arrival of this fairy godmother of music, Teddy had always had difficulty saying his name. He isn’t the most articulate communicator anyway, but with his name, he consistently dropped the “d”, making his name sound like Tey. So he excitedly commanded, “Alexa, play Tey playlist.” Alexa is a computer. She responds only to commands that exactly match her programming. And nothing in her database matched “Tey playlist”. So she was silent. And Teddy was frustrated. He would repeat himself several times, but always dropping those difficult d’s. And I would try not to laugh in the kitchen as I pointed out his error.

Teddy does not like to be corrected. But he does like his music. So with great consternation, for the fifth time, he would cry out, “Alexa, play Teh-dee playlist.” Ahh, finally something the poor woman could understand. And Johnny Cash’s croon  or Rolling in the Deep would fill the ground floor.

Unfortunately, this lesson was not learned in one episode. For weeks, Teddy would forget how fastidious Alexa was and lazily ask for “Tey’s playlist”. And Alexa would ignore him until with exasperation he would enunciate his name.

But he did learn. And we now credit Alexa for his ability to say his name intelligibly the first time. Too bad Alexa can’t teach confidence. Or decibel level. But we’ll get there. I’ve heard suggested that Alexa should have a child mode that only responds to requests that are made with the proper niceties, please and thank you. I also wish she would have some respect for herself and not respond when the kids yell at her. But since she’s just a computer, that irritates only me.