notes for grown-ups
What’s going on in that window.
Your kid is not being lectured by a robot. They are directing an AI coding agent — a program that can edit files and run commands. You are allowed to ask what it did.
What this is
- A kid deciding what should exist, then steering an AI agent until it does.
- A loop you can watch from a chair: they say it, they click it, they ask again.
- A set of notes, in plain language, for whoever is watching from nearby.
What this is not
- Homework, a class, or a thing with gold stars.
- A black box you are supposed to trust because a website said so.
- A replacement for you. Accounts, names, and putting something on the real internet are still family calls.
What the agent actually is
Around here the default is Cursor: a place on the computer where your kid types what they want in regular words. An AI agent tries to write the code. Your kid looks at what showed up, clicks it, and tells the agent what is wrong. That is the job. The agent is the intern. The kid is the boss. Claude Code and Codex are the same job in a terminal window — there is a note on choosing.
What it looks like
“Staying in charge” does not look like a lecture. It looks a little messy, and a little slow, and then something is on the screen that was not there a minute ago.
- 01 A sentence typed like a text to a friend, not like a spell.
- 02 A lot of clicking. That is the test, not a stall.
- 03 “No, like this” said out loud, or typed, more than once.
- 04 A break, then a return. The files are still there.
useful questions
Questions you can ask
Q
What did you ask it to do?
Gets you the prompt, not the performance. You will learn more from the sentence they typed than from the code.
Q
Show me the part that broke.
Puts you both on the same screen. You do not have to fix it. Looking is the point.
Q
What did you change?
After a flurry of agent activity, this brings the story back to one decision.
Q
Can I click it?
The same test they should already be doing. If they hesitate, that is useful information.
Looking is allowed
Sit down. Read what they typed. You do not need to understand every line. If a site is going on the real internet — names, photos, accounts — that is a family decision, not a kid-only one. The agent can be wrong in a confident voice. Panic is optional. Questions are not.