Funny piece >

Our son, points out at each and every available opportunity that he's the only kid in the 8th grade who doesn't have his own cell. Wherever he goes, his friends are standing around with cells glued to their ears, or they're texting away, their pubescent thumbs flying across the keys.
He usually starts the argument by insisting that he's mature enough to handle the responsibility of a cell phone. We usually don't even have to respond to that one. Just a few minutes of staring at him, giving him some time to think about all the expensive stuff he's either broken or lost, and he gives up that argument and switches gears.
Next, he point out that his friends' parents obviously care about their kids more than we do. They want them to have cell phones in case an emergency comes up. What would he do, he asked us the other day, if some crisis came up and he was the only kid in the group who couldn't call home? We stared at him.
"You're with 15 kids all holding cell phones," my wife said. "Borrow one for a minute!" It's a logical answer, but not one that satisfies our son.
Our 14-year-old is correct in observing that he's the last one in his grade to go wireless. But my wife and I continue to hold out for as long as possible. Our older sons, both in college, didn't get cell phones till they were seniors in high school, but the trend these days seems to be giving kids more and more trappings of adulthood while they're still interested in cartoons. Soon we'll have toddlers with PDAs.
As my wife points out, kids don't call anybody anyway. They text and text and text, each little one line "lol" or "rofl" message costing someone (their parents) yet another dime. Sometimes, kids will stand around in groups endlessly texting messages to friends who are just a few feet away. We're growing a whole generation of kids who won't be able to carry on conversations or interact with peers. Their only real skill will be typing 50 words per minute on a keyboard the size of a Zippo lighter.
We also know that once our kids get on our cell phone plan, we'll never get them off. Our oldest son is now 21, old enough to vote, to get married, to gamble, even to drink. He still walks around with a cell bought and paid for by Mom and Dad. I have this fear I'll be in a retirement home someday, and my gray-haired, bifocaled son will stop by to visit me, bring me chocolates and ask me to increase his monthly allotment of texts.
Besides, during the day, kids are in school, a place where they're not supposed to use phones at all, and the rest of the time they're at home, where they can get a hold of us by calling out from the couch. (Something they do all the time, making me rethink that whole beating thing.)
Our daughters don't argue with us, but only because they're a little more crafty. Last month, we passed a cell phone kiosk at the mall where they were handing out little brochures the size and shape of cell phones. The brochures had life-size pictures of cell phones on the front, and were meant to show all the features available on the latest model, but my daughters use them as visual aids in pointing out how mistreated they are.
At least once a day, they'll pull out their little cardboard cell phones, press a few fake buttons, then hold it to their ears.
"Sorry," they say into the "phone." "I can't talk right now because my parents are too cheap to get me a real phone. Bye now!"
At that point they better yank 'em out hope they reach a real "9-1-1", because at that point, I'm considering revisiting that beating policy.

That would make me a "poster child" in terms of having a teen with a cell phone addiction...

My daughter got her first cell phone on her 10th birthday...at the time, probably the first of her peers with one. It was a basic Nokia, and with both parents (us) away at work and her being in all sorts of extracurricular activities, it was imperative that we kept a lifeline available...hence the cell phone.

Texting wasn't prevalent then, and she used prudence with call volume, so was deemed her responsible enough to select a more fashionable phone later on...so she purchased a RAZR with her babysitting money when she turned 12.

Eventually, her peers matched her in that respect, even eclipsing her with the latest "haute couture" in phone technology...so her friends roll with iPhones and other wizardry available in the cell phone world.

Meanwhile, while continually disregarding my repeated warning regarding potential damage due to her leaving the case off of her phone, the display on the RAZR is finally cracked. She is confident that we will oblige with a sleek new phone. WRONGO!

Her contract isn't due for renewal, so every product is full asking price. So we accomodate with the cheapest phone available...with a protective skin. She LOATHES her new phone and conveniently "loses" it. We don't replace it. She realizes that she is in dire straits without a phone and wishes that she had that POS back.

The POS is found months later, and she is grateful, although she complains often about its spartan functionality. Texting is in full force among her peers, and her basic phone is ill-suited for the task...she manages to text nonetheless.

By this time, whenever we see our kid (or IF we ever see her), her head is down, while her fingers are busily punching keys. I have had to set ground rules on when and when not to text (i.e., not during dinner and not in church, etc.).

Nevertheless, her 14th birthday arrives, and I reward her introverted social skills brought on by texting with a new Blackberry (with a skin, of course). She is elated!

Her texting volume hasn't increased, but her furious keypressing has increased dramatically as a result of the QWERTY keypad. I wonder silently if she will get carpal-tunnel knuckles by adulthood as a result...good thing her athletic skills are focused on track and soccer, where fingers are not essential...

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

I agree with everything that's been said above - and yes we gave in and everyone had cell phones early in life

It's not just young children that are "addicted" to them, there are plenty of children in their 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's that are "addicted" to them too.

While waiting myself for a tech to activate my blackberry I've seen the raw emotions of the demanding, self-centered, self-righteous, petty douchebags that all too many Americans have become in recent years.

The panic on their face and in their voice and body movements would be hilarious if it weren't followed by angry demands, accusations and even insults when they were informed that they will be without their phone for a whole 30 minutes.

A half hour? What do you mean a half hour? I can't be without my phone for half an hour! Set me up with a loaner phone while it's being fixed! What do you mean you can't give me a loaner phone?!?! What are you doing that it takes a half hour to fix a phone? Just swap the phone, it should take you two minutes! What do you mean you can't save my contacts because it won't turn on? It's not my responsibility to back up my contacts!...And what do you mean I have to pay for the repair because I didn't get the service plan?!?! My phone is brand new, I just got it a year and a half ago and besides, I didn't break it, the screen shattered all by itself while sitting on the table!

A cell phone is little more than a binky for grownups.

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Funny thing for me is I have a basic phone strapped to my hip...it's generally quiet...no desire to upgrade or get sucked into the addiction...

__________________
2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

Idolotor, If you want to kill your sons "you dont care about me" argument, pm me your address and I will send you two old nokia's, and one charger. they will call 911, even if not activated to a plan, or with a SIM card installed. How many predators are in your neighborhood? http://www.familywatchdog.us/search.asp

My offer's open ended, but I leave in... 10 days... I can send it out whenever.


What's the problem with adding him to your plan, provided he pays for it?

"the plan comes with this basic phone for free. It calls, and can send/recieve texts. If you want a flip phone with a camara, here's how much they cost"
unlimited texting is like $20 a month, and my minits cost like $10 a month.

If he want's it, let him pay for it. What's the problem?

~Nate

__________________
95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

I got my first cell phone when I was 26 or 27. It came with a carrying case (the kind you hang from your shoulder, and the rate was 60 cents a minute - no free minutes, much less texting. Made you think before, what you wanted to say. (if only the people that answered would've been equally prepared in the listening area).

By the time my boy is old enough to want a cell phone, they'll probably have ones you just stick in your head, and everything will be either voice, or thought activated.
Probably just as well that he'll have something stuck in his ear, as teens rarely listen anyway.

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09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

Huh? What'd yall say???

~Nate

__________________
95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

Nate,

My post was an excerpt of a humorous story I was reading, that a man had written about his teenagers.

Thank you for your offer however... you are a very nice person!

My own kids (step kids) are almost grown. One, (Amanda) is 25 and graduated ASU last year. The other, (Lindsay) is 18 and will be going to ASU this fall and living in the dorm.

I do have a teen cell phone horror story: We got Lindsay a cell phone at age 14 and she SWORE she would be responsible with it. After one week, she brought it to me and said it didn't work, she wanted ANOTHER one! I looked at it, GOD! That phone looked like it had been dropped about twenty times, the screen was cracked, edges all chipped! I told her NOPE, you might ask for one for your next birthday in five months. She started crying... the other kids will think I'm a dork if I don't have a phone she screamed! I said, should we start calling you dork then instead of Lindsay! Her mother agreed, she might learn to take care of the next one if we wait for five months.

We get her another (CHEAP) one for her birthday. Fine for about four months WE THINK... NOT!!!! My wife opens our Sprint bill... CRAP!!!!
$1500.00 for calls to CANADA????!!!!! WTF!!! LINDSAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! get your ass in here, now! EXPLAIN!!! Well I met this girl on Myspace and she said Canada wasn't a long distance call...

Took the cell phone away from her for one year for that stunt.
I make her pay for ANY texts messages and ANY long distance now that she has a job.

My son is 2 - I dont want to know what he'll be begging me for when he's a teen....

Work gave me a blackberry, unlimited data plan and all- it is really nice. But if/when I leave this job, they BB will leave too, and I'll have to get used to it. No way I am paying my own $$ for the top of the line phone for anyone... I'll carry a basic nokia and my old-school handspring PDA (!)

-John

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Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

I have a cell phone for those specific times when I'd need a pay phone.........and, naturally, they hardly exist anymore.

400 minutes per year is about 2X what I need. The cost is $100. and well worth the expense.

Your answer to those kids is simple:

You can have a cell phone anytime you wish..........simply pay the bill when it comes.

Case closed.

X2

We forget that kids managed just fine for thousands of years without cell phones. Heck what did they do 100 years ago?

I got my cell when I got out of high school because I didn't want to pay for the damn thing. Now I hate it. I'll only pick up if I want to talk to you, a lot of calls go right to voice mail.

99.999999999% of the minutes used are dumb talking or texting to their friends about stupid stuff.

Now that I'm older its nice because I am almost never home so my parents call me if they want me to do something for them, etc. Also its essential for business. I'd say 80% of the minutes I use per month are business related.

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1969 280SE
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2007 Tiara 3200

They still found ways to piss off their parents, enter Romeo and Juliet...

If they had cell phones, she woulda been able to text Romeo (in a private moment) that she wasnt really dead, and she was only playing dead as to not be married to paris, and it wouldnt matter that the damn Friar was late because some gawdaweful township thought he had the Plauge...


Anyways but yeah, if the kids can pay for it, who cares?
~Nate

__________________
95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

A lot of kids these days don't want to work though. I don't understand it I always liked working.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Yeah, money's nice to have... I dont understand that either.
Buying a kid who doesnt have a job a cell phone is wrong, unless they're kicking ass on that school thing plus extracurriculars...

~Nate

__________________
95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

Guess I'm the odd one out. I love my cell. My daughter, newly graduated from college, laughs with her friends that she and her dad text each other several times a day. I'm sitting at the outside bar with a friend - a cloud passes overhead - Hang On! I'll check the radar for ya! We sure wouldn't want a massive severe thunderstorm sneaking up on us, right? The woman in the office 4 feet from my office door and I text each other all day long. I love toys.
This is the one I picked up a few weeks ago.

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