Moving on up...cell phones

So I succumbed

The gels get a phone

For their birthday last month. Thus keeping up with all the other little Jones'. Hard to believe the little tomboys are now on the verge of actual teen-hood. Mind you, they better grow a waist, the new school pants are the right colour and length. Only. Alterations were more than the original cost!

Phones

Severe restrictions of course. Fatherhood allows that. Does it not?

one- do not use them...

two- I do not want to subsidise over-use thank you very much

three- do not drop them

four- I cannot remember

five- use facetime?

six- use the landline?

Anyway, so far, no recharge yet until the next few weeks...

Maybe they are being sensible? 

[But one cent texts... #2Son can fill five sheets of his phone bill with itemised sms calls...]

They did lose the privledge of use because they could not keep a tidy room. In one case, nearly a fortnight. 

"Have you finished your room?" 

"Almost" 

"Well, do you want your phone AND iPod back or what?"

"Yeah..?"

"WELL?"

I dunno how the human race arrived at this point.

Did Julius Caesar give his folks grief like that?

The Boys

Eldest son was suitably Outraged that the gels got a phone in the first year of high school, whereas he had to wait until I had a spare when he was in his second  or third year, long after friends had them. Even so, he was good with it.

The second son managed to scrounge a second hand one off a richer friend when he was in his first or second year at high school. And managed to sell "his bmx bike spares" to maintain the SIM card and plan that had to be gotten under my name anyway.

I think they are outraged as I really did go out and buy the twins a phone each, even though I probably will bleed financially as soon as they get the hang of them.

But... As the gels already have Apple Touches with wifi video- do they really need a cell phone? I thought no. With the Facetime, it was fine really, the broadband plan was upgraded enough to cover the five technophiles that lived under my roof anyway. 

Tarn

Tarn would have been mortified, being the sort of technophobe that had to be gently persuaded over many months that a new bra would be better than the one with the loose under wire[s?] prodding her conciousness over whether I would be unamused at such an extravagance: 

"A new bra? What!" which I never said by the way because I could not understand it. But maybe I with some affluence and consumeristic ideas I had devolved into a toddler- 

"GIMME IT. NOW!" 

I do not think that a new vacuum cleaner would be allowed either- I love my dyson...

So the boys were a little nose out of joint- was it favouritism?

Me

No.

I need the gels to feel safe in these times, for example that they do not have to scramble for a coin AND a public telephone if they need help. Being the single parent/single dad, I need to be re-assured that they can be safe, all the time. Do you know that the number of public telephone in our town can be counted on one hand...? Well, google earth won't let me find them, but I am sure there is a lot less around these days than when I was a kid. But I can find a video store...

The Birthday celebrations