A Cell Phone is NOT a Necessity

My youngest son's cell phone is currently in my possession. Since we (the hubby's money and my check writing, envelope licking, and stamp sticking skills) pay the cell phone bill each month, we set up a few simple rules for its use. One rule is that the cell phone shouldn't be used at the dinner table or during Family Home Evening. The biggest rule is that the cell phone can and will be taken away for disrespectful behavior. Tonight during Family Home Evening when the son kept texting his friend and his mouth kept running faster than his brain I had finally had enough and asked for his cell phone. Following some extreme theatrics I was given the phone and I am not planning on returning it anytime within the next 24 hours. Every few minutes the son comes in with another reason why he NEEDS his cell phone right now.

He NEEDS it to wake him up in the morning. He does use the alarm on his cell phone to wake up, but lately he still seems to need a couple of parental reminders as well and he does have an alarm clock next to his bed, so I'm pretty sure we'll manage to get him up on time in the morning even without his phone.

He NEEDS to call someone really important. Hard as it is to believe, we have a house phone that calls people just as well as his cell phone does. No, he can't take it outside and around the corner and up on the top of the block wall to chat in private, but it would still work.

He NEEDS it to text me and let me know if he needs a ride home from school or not tomorrow. I do appreciate his texts that say that our neighbor can give him a ride, which saves me a trip, but I told him I will just plan on picking him up tomorrow so that alleviates that problem. He's pretty sure that just won't work.

I don't think anyone really NEEDS a cell phone. Yes, my cell phone makes my life easier and there are times that I wonder how I ever managed without one, but if I didn't have one I would still survive. I'm almost positive that a cell phone is a WANT and not a NEED.

This line of thinking has reminded me of two items I have been musing about recently. Friday morning a friend of mine received the following text that she shared with me.

Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we traveled?
What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go....hmm...where is my Bible? Oh, and one more thing: Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.

Definitely something to think about. I can honestly say I do know where my Bible is but do I NEED my scriptures as frequently and fervently as I seem to NEED my cell phone.

The second thing is this post I read today about a year long activity focusing on "Every Needful Thing". What is it that I actually do NEED in my life? I'm pretty sure that it's not a cell phone, but I'm interested in participating in this journey and being reminded of the things that I do NEED and trying to include them in my daily life. Perhaps you'd like to join me.

Today I am grateful for

a house that is a tiny bit more organized.
zucchini and scrambled eggs.
January in Arizona.

Twins

I've heard that in interracial families when fraternal twins are born one can resemble one race and the other one can resemble the other. I guess this is what happened in this case. The youngest daughter has the light toned phone and the youngest son has the darker one.

I guess it's nice that this son has an older brother who believes him when he says he needs a new phone. I personally think his old phone was just fine. Ditto on the daughter's new phone.

Here the two of them are texting each other with the other one's phone. I think they could have just talked since they are sitting across the table from each other, but once again, I'm just the mom and what do I know?

Introducing Sally 2

Today I am the reluctant owner
of a new cell phone,
thanks to faulty pants pockets,
"wild" teenage driving and
my loving hubby.

I have a very difficult time with change
and have had the same style of cell phone
since I became a reluctant cell phone owner
back in the Fall of 2004.

I have actually had 3 different phones.
First my original plan issue.
Then my oldest son's identical phone
that I acquired
when he needed an upgrade and
I needed buttons that actually pushed.
Most recently I had the exact same phone
courtesy of my youngest daughter's
necessary upgrade to a sidekick phone
with a keypad
for easier texting and internet access.

I had a flip phone
(also a hand-me-down
from the son)
for a week
and I hated it.
I took about 200 pictures
of the inside of my pocket in that week.
I kept accidentally hanging up
on people when I tried to answer it
and the space button
and capital letter button
and puncuation button
were in different places
than I was use to
when I tried to text
and it frustrated me no end.

Now, I know all you
younger than 30 text messagers out there are saying
"You don't use puncuation when you TEXT!"
but I pride myself on my puncuation
and my complete words
and my capital letters
and my precise spacing.
That is why it takes me 10 minutes to send a
5 word text message.
That and the fact that I despise T9.

My husband was going to buy me
a new cell phone a while back
so we went to the T-mobile store and
looked at our options.
I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack
right there in front of the display cases.

So Many Choices.
So Many Bells and Whistles
and Cameras and Colors.
I had to get out of there and fast.
That's when I decided that
I could always scroll up so
I didn't really need a down arrow that worked.

I hate change
but now it has been thrust upon me
and I will just have to get use to it.

I couldn't even make myself go to the store today.
The husband went with 2 of the kids.
I made the hubby promise me
no flipping,
no sliding,
and no picture taking.

Just a boring new phone
like my boring old one.

My kids were so disappointed.
So of course,
the daughter had to purchase an upgrade for herself.


Today I am thankful for

a husband that will go buy me a new cell phone so "my heart doesn't have to go all crappy". That's what happens when I walk into a cell phone store, a car dealership or Costco.
a husband that is willing to be one of the few men watching a "chick flick" because that's the movie I wanted to see.
a husband who loves me even though I think too hard.

My birthmonth present to myself today was going to see "Mamma Mia" for free with my library reading program gift cards.

The new thing I learned today is that there are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. How many can you come up with?

My Son's First Driving Casualty

My 16 year old was involved in a hit and run today. The worst part was, I was in the car with him at the time and I didn't even realize that it had happened. It wasn't until we got to our house that I realized something was even wrong. We quickly returned to the scene. But it was too late for the victim. Parts of her were strewn all over the asphalt. My son attempted to resuscitate her, but she was too far gone. Even his magic fixing skill was not enough. Sally the Cell Phone is no more. At least we don't have to report this accident to the insurance company. I guess I know what I want for my birthday now! Today I am thankful for cooler temperatures and RAIN. for washing machines. I wouldn't want to wash clothes with a rock and a bar of soap. that the driving casualty was a cell phone and not a car or a person. My birthmonth present today was not having to drive anyone to or from work. All the cars kept running for another day. Keep your fingers crossed.

A cell phone - finally!

The teenage boy has been wanting a cell phone for a long, long time. The past couple of Christmases he has been sure that each package he opened was going to be a cell phone but it never was. I have told him for just about as long that I get to hear his disrespectful comments plenty when we are together. Why would I actually pay to have him call me up and say mean things? All he wanted for his birthday was a cell phone. I tossed the idea back and forth a lot, but finally decided that maybe it would be good to have something he really cares about to take away as punishment. Nothing else I try seems to work, although his behavior has been much improved since he returned from the beach, most likely because he really, really wants a cell phone. This morning I told him I was going to wrap up an empty cell phone box for his birthday so he would get all excited and then be disappointed again, but even I'm not that mean. It did make him a little nervous though when he pulled the box out of the t-mobile bag and there was no phone in it. His dad had it hidden in his pocket. We can't make life too easy for him now can we? It also came with a lot of rules attached. Anyway, he spent the rest of the night texting all his friends to share the exciting news. I'm still trying to decide if unlimited texting is a good thing or not. Maybe we need even more rules than we thought of.

Procrastination

My children all have a bad habit of procrastinating. I have never been able to figure out where they get it from. Certainly not me. Today the youngest was suppose to sign into his summer online health class. If he didn't sign on he would be dropped from the class. At 9:00 my cell phone alarm rang and I reminded him that it needed to be done. Of course he was planning on doing it and had it all under control but right then was not the time. I dropped a few hints and issued a few reminders throughout the day, but there was always something else he HAD TO DO at that moment. About 5:00 I said, "Let's go do it now!" and went to the computer to log onto the internet. Lo and behold there was no internet service. I picked up the phone and there was no dial tone. I announced that we were going to the library to sign in since it had to be done. There was door slamming and loud, annoying remarks. From the son, not me, although I felt like voicing my opinion in a very loud manner. We grabbed the instruction sheet that told us how to sign on, drove to the library and made our first attempt... no such user name. Then our second attempt... no such user name. This continued for about 20 attempts and more than a few whispered, annoying remarks. We were in the library after all. Finally, he sent an e-mail to the instructor explaining the problem and asking what he should do and we went back home.

The hubby was home when we got there and he called the phone company on his cell phone and they assured us that the phone would be fixed by 7:00 PM - tomorrow. As a side note here I will mention that this phone not working had been a common (once a month) occurance until recently when the phone company finally reburied the phone line in our alley that has been laying above the ground for about 2 years and got sliced everytime the city cleaned up the alley. We were hoping our phone troubles were over, but this wasn't looking promising. Usually it takes 2 to 3 days to get service again so at least 1 day sounded better. To make a long story a little bit shorter, about 8:00 we got a call that our phone was fixed and we were able to use the internet, get the correct user name from the e-mail the teacher had responded to and sign into the class. Hooray!! All those loud annoying words for nothing!

Message to my Children - Don't put off until 5:00 what you can do at 9:00.