Speaking of techie teens
Our teens had pay-as-you-go phones for quite a while before I finally added them to our plan. I wanted to see how many minutes they used a month before I just threw them on to our plan and ended up with a $300 phone bill.
Last summer we got each of the boys a cell phone on our plan and we make them pay the extra $10 a month for their lines. When we got the phones we had them put a text message block on their phones. Even at just $0.15 a text, texting can get quite expensive.
After much begging, I finally gave in and removed the block this week. I also added unlimited texting to our family plan. The boys were so excited. I’m pretty sure they have sent at least 100 messages in the last two days.
Tonight I was sitting at my desk, working on a post when my cell phone dinged. I looked over at it and I had a text message. It was from my oldest. Instead of coming downstairs to say good night, he texted us. From his bedroom.
Teenagers. *eye roll*
Hee hee. My daughter texts me too, although she hasn’t done it from the house yet! We hardly ever talk on the phone, though. She texts me that she’s home from school, to ask for a snack, etc. I just have to keep an eye on her account because we don’t have unlimited texting… we get 400 a month, and between her and her friends, she has gone over a few times, and those 15 cent charges DO add up.
My daughter and I text a lot. One night she was angry with me because I wanted her to do her school work. I wasn’t home, and she had hung up on me on the phone. I waited a little while and texted her. She resisted at first, but she eventually did her homework. I can tell her stuff by texting that she wouldn’t listen to over the phone or in person. The other night, she was playing music too loud and I texted her “sh sh sh” and she turned it down! It’s sort of like speaking in her language…
There was a survey done about a month ago that said that texting between parents and teens improves their relationship. To read more about it see http://connectwithyourteens.blogspot.com/2008/04/samsung-survey-text-messaging-improves.html