The Blonde and I have a totally cellular family: no land line! I have five phones on a family plan; unlimited phone to phone, unlimited nights and weekends, and rollover minutes. Even with three girls, I have minutes running out my ears.
Text messaging almost became a problem; Cingular charges for incoming as well as outgoing messages.
Youngest: “But Daddy, I can’t stop my friends from texting me!”
My reply? “You better figure out how to get them to stop or you’ll lose your phone.”
She figured it out.
Some people hate what cell phones have done to their family: arguments over money, feeling disrespected (“I was talking to you and your just ignored me to answer your phone”), or expectations about ALWAYS answering MY call that go unmet.
Others, like me, view cell phones (and text messaging) as a way of staying connected (especially with my two young adult children).
What do you think?
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We don’t have a land line either. I love it! We can talk anytime. My oldest has one too and we actually text back and forth during the day when she is at lunch or if she needs me to bring her something.
I think it’s great! She has fun texting her friends too!
I’m not a big fan of any kind of phone. I don’t like talking on them. Never have. But I have nothing against cell phones in particular as long as my cardinal rule for using any phone is acknowledged:
“The phone is made for man and not man for the phone.”
And the corollaries:
“Just because it rings doesn’t mean you must pick it up.”
“If you wouldn’t let that person walk up to us and interrupt our conversation, then don’t let him do it on the phone.”
Jodi:
Good rules!
Love my gadets, and cell phones are one of them.
I still have a land line since my DSL is part of that bill, but I could see how people could live without land lines (once they go to cabel modems).
Plus, of all the punishments, taking away my daughters cell phone seems to be the best one out there. I think she would rather me take away her car then her phone.
Though, I’m still not convenced she really “needs” the cell phone the way she claims. It is nice to be able to call it and have her and be able to reach her.
(oh, and maybe we both need to check, cause I always thought the incoming messages were free, or are now. Maybe that’s because I was converted from the old at&t wireless)
Terry:
I checked:
I leave my cell phone in the car. I don’t want to be that accessible to everyone. My husband, on the other hand, has his in his pocket or on the nightstand by his head. It would be nice for him not to be so accessible. Now that he has one of those phones that does everything but my laundry and dishes, he is checking his email or whatever every few minutes. Can you tell that you’ve caught me at a bad time with the cell phone question?
I was the last person on earth to have a cell phone. I really can not do two things at once and now I don’t even know the number to give it out. That being said, my husband can multi-task like none other (In fact his job is to mainstream processes so employees can do more in a work day) so I rely on him when we are together to handle all cell phone dealings. (Seriously, I could not carry on a conversation with my cell phone going off as much as his–but he can.) So while I’d love to say people should not use cell phones as often as they do, Eric’s adeptness at the cell phone thing allows me not to have to deal with it so much.
Sometimes I think it would be easier if we had a God that said, “Cell phones are evil.” It would make it a lot easier to know how to handle this kind of stuff with my kids. I guess God wants us to depend on him and not a lot of rules (though he does have some) for our direction. That being said, I have drawn a line in the sand and I will not let my son have a cell phone until he is at least in Kindegarten!
Terry,
I think, In Texas they just changed that law. You now do not have to have local coverage to have DSL–tell those reps in Oklahoma to get with the program!
Shelley,
I thought about getting a all-in-one device (like a treo)… must be a guy thing. However, I’m just not ready to give up my “Batman utility belt” look.
BTW, if you could figure out how to set your dishwasher on a timer connected to your home computer, then he could manage it through his phone and it would do the dishes, too!