Phone Fail

Since the middle of last school year, GG has been asking for a cell phone.

"Everyone has one" (didn't work for my mom and it won't work on me!)

I found it hard to believe that every third grader had a cell phone. Every time I turned around it seemed like another third grade parent was complaining about their own child constantly asking for a phone. The husband and I, along with most of those other parents, didn't even bat an eye before saying no.

Did you notice I said "most' of those parents? Apparently some parents have caved. I respect their decision, but that doesn't mean that it will change my mind about buying my 9 year old her own phone. But what it might end up doing is sending me after one parent in particular. The parent who didn't explain any rules about calling her friends.


My children go to by 9. That is early compared to some kids who have the luxury of sleeping in. Just because it's summer vacation doesn't mean we get a break from taking the husband to work every morning. My kids need their sleep or else it gets ugly the next day.

Wednesday night I had put the kids to bed. I came downstairs to blog, Facebook, and work on my never-ending sweater. At 9:30 my phone rang. I don't talk to very many people because I prefer to text and those few people I do talk to have their own ring tones. This ring tone was the one for other people. Ever since I was a child, if someone called after 9 9n the evening, it wasn't a good thing. Naturally I started to freak out. I looked at the caller ID and quickly realized that it was a friend of GG's. Since she was in bed I let it go to voice mail, which her friend failed to leave.

Thursday morning, just after 8, we were walking Little Dude up to the school for his summer camp. My phone rings again. It is GG's friend again. It wasn't a good time to talk since so again, I let it go to voice mail. Which she failed to leave again.

Fast forward two hours - 10 am. My phone rings again. I'm sure you can guess who it was. Again. This time I handed my phone to GG. Her friend was calling to see if GG could join her and her family at a local amusement park over the weekend. I told her no because the day they were going is the day we have dinner plans with my in-laws. I felt bad GG couldn't go, but family comes first.

Twenty minutes later my phone rings yet again. I was outside and didn't even hear it ring. This time she left a message. The first part was a reminder about what to bring to this girl's sleepover tonight. In the rest of the message, this girl explained that they already had an extra ticket. If I changed my mind about allowing GG to go, please call her back. Apparently she thought I was saying no for shits and giggles?


By this point I was highly annoyed. She called after dark, first thing in the morning, and again until someone answered. Mid-afternoon, when I thought I had everything planned out as to what I would say to her dad when I saw him, my phone rings. Again, it's GG's friend. She was trying once again to get me to change my mind. I had GG explain to her that we had family obligations. She still continued to persist.

I was at a loss for words. Not only had she called me more times than I think she should have, she also gave me the pleasure of dealing with a miserable child the rest of the afternoon.

I really hate talking to parents about their child for something negative. I hated it when I worked in day care and I hate it now. Unfortunately, it looks like that is what I have to do.


Until next time...