Kaeden: "Mom, you want to watch this toony with me?" (cartoons)
Me: "I will in a minute, Kaeden, I have some things to do first."
Kaeden: "Watcha goin' do, Mom?"
Me: "Well, I'm going to clean up the kitchen, then I'm going to pay some bills..."
Kaeden: "What is 'pay bills'?"
Kaeden: "What is 'pay bills'?"
Me: "I have to pay money to different people so we can have certain things. I have to pay the electricity bill so we can have lights. I have to pay the water bill so we can do dishes and take showers. And you know Mommy's cell phone? I have to pay a bill for that too."
Kaeden: "I think I need some bills so my cell phone will work. All of my cell phones are broken so pay some bills so I can have a work[ing] phone too."
He plays with a "toy" cell phone that was, at one time, an active, working cell phone. He pretends to "text his friends", he randomly picks it up and answers it, he even pretends to plug it in and charge it. He tells me all the time that he needs a cell phone of his own so, he says, he can call his Dad and his Grandma. I am not, in any way, even entertaining the idea of getting my four year old a cell phone. Let me repeat, KAEDEN IS NOT GETTING A CELL PHONE. But it begs the question: When will he be old enough for a cell phone? When I was, to sound old, 'coming of age' it wasn't until teens/young adults were nearly self-sufficient that they got a cell phone (or a pager!), but even then hardly ANYONE had one. Gradually I started noticing younger and younger KIDS getting their own phones - 17, 16, 15 years old. It was when I worked for a cell phone call center for 18 months that I actually talked to customers who had cell phones on their accounts for their 10 and 11 year olds! I wonder if, when Kaeden hits the pre-teen years, the acceptable age for a child to have a cell phone will have dropped even more! I know for sure that he will have one once he's driving. God forbid he take the car for a 10 minute trip and I don't hear from him for 15 minutes!! (lol) But I guess I am just trying to gauge how long I will have to listen to him whining at me "Moooooom, I want a cellll phoooone." (It's already started so.... 10 years?) I think right now he understands that he can ask all he wants, he's not getting one. But when he's 12 years old or so and all of his friends have cell phones what am I supposed to say? Is 11 too young? (remember, kids this age often have after school activities that they attend sans parents) Is 17 too old? I don't see us ever having a land line phone again so maybe when he's old enough to stay home alone. Now-a-days they have all kinds of nifty monitoring software that allows you to keep track of who they talk to, how long they talk, what time they're allowed to talk, etc.
Hmmm..... I guess it's something to think about for the future. I would hate to think that he's already half way to cell-phone-owning age. Yikes!
