I knew it would take drastic action.  Nearly two decades of attempts had fallen flat.  It was the 21st century, and my mom was still not on the internet.

I first got online in 1994.  Seventeen years later, my mom still had a paralyzing fear of even turning a computer on, let alone surfing the web.

More time went by with no progress.  Excuses begat more excuses.  I needed something so compelling that she would have no choice but to capitulate.

Finally, I hit on a solution: I would play to the fears of a parent being disconnected from a child’s life.  It was the spring of 2011, and I was about to leave Minnesota on a 6-month trip to every state and province.  I told my mom that I would not tell her anything about the trip on the phone. She would need to read about it on my blog.

It’s possible that she thought I was bluffing (I wasn’t), but regardless, she quickly got on board with the idea of acquiring internet access.

My sister gave her an older laptop, I did the initial system setup, and my mom subscribed to Clear.  In no time at all, she was leaving mom-esque comments on my trip blog.

Success!