Can I get my phone today? Can I get my phone today? Can I get my phone today? Can I get my phone today? Can I get my phone today? Can I get my phone today? Can I get my phone today? Can I get my phone today? Can I get my phone today???
More than we heard, “Are we there yet?” on our recent road trips, the question/pleading/mantra/broken record of “Can I get my phone today?” has been heard daily around our house, and in stereo, since our exchange student went back to France on Monday. We were able to get a new, free phone from our cell phone plan for her to use when she arrived last summer (she paid us monthly for calls/texting), and each of our daughters were hoping it might become theirs when she left. Our tween has never had her own phone but was told she could get one when she entered Jr. High this fall; our teen threw her own phone in anger a few months ago (it shattered) and she’s gone without ever since.
Even though our teen had purchased her phone with her own money when she was the same age as our youngest is now, I think somehow they’d both forgotten that fact, and had come to believe that having a phone was their God-given right as teenage (and soon to be teenage) girls, rather than being a privilege to be earned– so they were surprised later this week when Andy and I made the announcement that, though we wouldn’t charge them monthly for phone service, it would cost them each $60 if they wanted a phone. We told them that the first one to pay us would get our exchange student’s phone, and the next to come up with the money would get a new, similar version. Luckily for our tween, she’d been carefully saving for awhile, earning allowance and doing odd jobs (including a killer job of washing the aravan last week), so she was able to purchase the phone last night. We figured our perennially cash-strapped teen would have to a.) do weeks of jobs around the house and earning allowance in order to pay for anything or b.) get one of the retail jobs for which she’s been turning in applications– but darn it if she didn’t “slide by” once again…Thanks to Target’s generous “no receipts needed” and no-questions-asked return policy, she decided she could take back a few things recently purchased there to come up with most of the money.
Should I celebrate the fact that my teen is a creative thinker? Maybe, but what she didn’t figure into the equation is that she needs transportation to get to Target to do those returns, and she’d been with Andy when she’d made her recent purchases there and they’d been put on his credit card, so…
The yard sure is looking overgrown these days…and Andy says he sure could use some mowing help since he injured his knee playing softball a few nights ago…and it sure is a big yard…
I applaud you for having your girls work for the phones instead of just handing them over. It is a lesson well-learned and they will appreciate it in the long run. I think too many parents just give, give, give and kids don’t have to work for things. How are we then surprised when they become adults who expect the same?
Thank you for having the courage to teach your girls that hard work (and critical thinking skills 🙂 do pay off in the end.
Thank you for the kind comments! I loved looking out the window after dinner tonight and watching her help her father– maybe she’ll enjoy the skills she’s learning so much that she’ll want to do more!