Cell Phones

When April was here over the 4th of July, I was looking at her cell phone. It was a lot cooler than mine. It had a camera. It could record sound. It had a full keyboard that would make texting a ton easier. When she told me how much it had cost her, I had to pass on the information to Steven. He did some research, and last Friday, our new phones arrived. The next couple days were filled with getting our phone numbers and minutes transferred to the new phones, and becoming familiar with them and their capabilities. We acquired additional gadgets for them - one to connect them to the computer to transfer music and pictures, and another to connect to the car stereo so Steven can listen to the music on his cell phone over the car speakers while he is driving his hour long commute each way to work. I spent several hours one day customizing my ring tone and formatting a few of my computer desktop backgrounds for display on my phone. It's been fun playing with our new phones.

When we transferred our service to our new phones, our old phones became toys for the kids. Josh particularly, has latched onto his, and has it in his hand almost constantly. When it isn't in his hand, it is in his pocket. We've already had to make rules about cell phones at the table during meal times and Family Home Evening. I've had to confiscate them so chores could get done. The kids have learned to make them do things that I never bothered learning - like changing the language to Spanish. Josh has put new icons on the home page menu. Hannah has programed Ode to Joy and three other songs as ring tones. They pretend to send each other texts. Josh used the calculator on the phone to figure out how much money they made at their lemonade stand yesterday (a whopping $38.30!) If this is what they are like with phones that can't call or text, what will they do with phones that can?


(I understand that even cell phones without service can still make 911 calls - the children have been warned severely against trying that.)