As a busy housewife, I use my mobile phone for purely practical reasons to arrange things like piano classes, making sure that the kids are ok and asking my husband to get milk and carrots on his way back from work.    Those days are gone when I had been a highflying career girl and used my cell phone to talk to clients or to organize a girl’s night out.   I don’t possess the time and energy to download  software and music ring tones; my life is simply too hectic for that.  The person who said domestic technicians have it hassle-free doesn’t know what they are talking about.  I know my husband frequently makes use of his phone to connect to the web when he is out of the workplace and my youngest born likes to play games on his phone. 

My daughter, like the majority of teenagers nowadays, is surgically connected to her mobile phone.  She brings it anywhere she goes, as well as the bathroom, to ensure that she doesn’t overlook a single inbound text message.    Many times, it appears to me that her every activity depends on instructions received via sms.  If I didn’t know better, I’d believe that aliens were controlling her, but no, it is merely her network of friends.   She can be slouching on the lounger on a Sunday morning in a worn old pair of shorts and t-shirt, apparently watching television, when suddenly her cell phone will chime.   Super fast she’s off the couch and up the stairs to her bedroom. In record time, she’s back down once more, dressed to the nines and sporting that icky blue eye shadow I forbade her to wear as it makes her look like a streetwalker, pleading to be lifted to the shopping center.

 I’ve learned to translate the alerts from my daughter’s mobile phone like a mind reader.  I consider it my obligation as her mom and social taxi service to find out what is going on in her life and react accordingly.  In the event that I’m going to give my authorisation, or not, as is frequently the case, then I wish to have prior notice of precisely what she is going to require of me, and I employ her phone to do this.   Although it is not below me to make use of all the strategies in my arsenal to keep a pace ahead of my clever and demanding girl, I won’t stoop to examine her cell phone while she’s not in the room.  Moreover, I do not in reality have to see her communications; I’m so good, as I can identify just what she is contemplating just from her body language and the way her fingertips fly across the keys. 

My husband and I thought long and hard prior to giving our kids cell phones, particularly my daughter due to the fact she has the typical teenage predilection for such a thing, but we eventually determined that it was inevitable.   I like being able to contact my boy, who is eleven, anytime he is away from me and furthermore having the reassurance that arises from knowing he is able to get in touch with me in case he needs me.  My daughter, on the other hand, is another pot of fish and I need to keep the girl’s cell phone utilization under control.  On the other hand, I do find her communications with her mobile to be an incredibly helpful indication of what she is about to do which really helps when you have an erratic and capricious teen around.