Kids and their phone calls
March 31st, 2008 by Treena ShapiroWhen my 11-year-old son’s cell phone survived a full cycle in the washing machine last month, I was impressed.
Still, I wasn’t surprised when it didn’t survive its second trip through the wash a week-or-so later. Technically, it might have survived the moisture again if it hadn’t also been thrown into the dryer. We’ll never know.
Since he refuses to make keeping track of his phone a priority, I figured replacing it didn’t need to be a priority either. I ordered a cheap new-used phone off eBay and it took a couple weeks for it to arrive and get activated.
I hadn’t realized how much I missed him having a phone.
I admit I wasn’t thrilled to have him call me dozens of times to “test” the new phone, but the real calls made me smile.
He called to tell me that he saw a commercial for a reality show that’s “kind of like ‘Survivor’ ” and something we should definitely schedule on the TiVo so we can watch it together.
Then he had his 4-year-old sister call to give me a blow-by-blow description of the movie “Horton Hears a Who,” which, by her account, (POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT) is about a boy who didn’t talk to his father, and then he did. (SPOILER OVER)
Hmmm… I thought it was about an elephant who believed “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” Horton, the same elephant who hatched an egg, has some of the greatest moral values of any fictional character and I think my daughter’s due for some Dr. Seuss storytime to make sure she understands the messages.
But I digress. An hour after my daughter finished telling me all about the very tiny Whos, my son called back.
I think he called from Starbucks. He was irritated that he’d ordered a hot strawberry steamer and was given strawberry milk poured over ice instead. It wasn’t even a Strawberries and Creme Frappuccino! He was aghast. “They don’t know what they’re doing,” he complained (to me, but not to the barista, by the way).
A little while later, he called again.
“When are you coming home?” he asked.
Now THAT’S why I really missed him having a cell phone.
It’s practically the only way that he’ll ever let on that he might miss me.
Tags: "Horton Hears a Who", cell phones
March 31st, 2008 at 9:20 am
Why does your 11 year old son have a full working cell phone? When I grew up I had qaurters. What is your doing at Starbucks ordering some fancy frap drink? When I grew up I either went to McDonalds or the manapua trucks. Wow, have times changed. I think that young kids should have some kind of communication gadget, especially since technology allows it, but more of the 4 button sort. You know, those 4 buttons that only call parents, grandparents, police, or fire. I’m just amazed when I see young kids on cell phones. Alas, like I said times are changing and the new generation has opportunites I have to get over.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:56 am
i still find it amazing that parents buy cell phones for their kids. when i was 13 i finally got a pager…i know, a pager, how archaic! a few years ago i was helping me mom clean out a bunch of stuff and ran across my old pager bills, she paid something like $15 or $20 a month for me to be able to receive stupid messages from my friends! lol!! it might not seem like a lot, but that was still $200+ a year that could’ve gone somewhere else! but i took care of that pager like my life depended on it, cuz if i ever messed it up, i wasn’t gettin’ another one!
March 31st, 2008 at 10:27 am
MooGoo: I had quarters, too. The cool kids had calling card numbers. I was not cool.
JuSaMee: I didn’t get my first pager until I was in my 20s. It was a present from a friend who I think was just sick of people paging him trying to find me.
As for my son having a cell phone, it’s more of a comfort for me than a privilege for him. I like being able to keep tabs on him provided that he’s carrying his phone and it’s turned on.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Tree, I hear ya! My 14 year-old (step)son doesn’t call me often, but he calls me when he gets a good grade on a test or to tell me how he did in the golf tournament… and to find out what’s for dinner (under the guise of “When are you coming home?”)! It’s still nice when he calls (or sends the occasional “Hi Mom!” text message!), especially when he’s really happy about something! Though now he burns up his own phone line, originally, he mainly used to have the phone to keep contact with us (me or my husband) when he had to stay with his “real” mom (it pains me to call her that since she does nothing for him and he doesn’t even see her, but I can’t think of anything else besides “birth” mom… but then it sounds like he’s adopted?!).
Like your son, my son often leaves things in his pockets, but, luckily, never left his phone! He already had to pay for a replacement phone when he lost his relatively new phone on a trip to Florida with his school - I had told him before he left to always put the phone in his fanny pack (especially on thrill rides… ever see the pile of cell phones at lost and found at an amusement park?!) and , of course, he didn’t!
Kids today are spoiled, my son included. But, I, too, feel a little more at ease knowing I have a means to contact my son at almost any time, if I need to. Today’s society is different… I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable sending a teenage daughter, or even my son, on the bus to the mall with a bunch of quarters (which is what I did! - hey, didn’t even have phone cards when I did that!!). Heck, nowadays it’s hard to find pay phones, too! So, the cell phone, I feel, can be partially justified (I would never have gotten it just because his classmates had one)… but, the IPOD… ehh, I’m not so sure! (What do you get a 14 year old boy for his birthday or Christmas gift otherwise? It was from a bunch of relatives, too… not just us. So there. Ha ha ha… I tried!)