My daughter has been begging me for a cell phone for forever. It's very annoying. I don't think kids should have cell phones. It's gotten worse because all of her friends have cell phones and they all text my phone. Which is very annoying. My husband has been on her side and they have been wearing me down. "She's going to be in middle school, she walks to friends houses and we can keep in touch with her and have GPS." I think we should just microchip her, but whatever. I've really struggled with this. I don't want her to be a zombie looking at the screen all the time. I was discussing this with my mother and she was like, I'll give her my old iphone 3 and you can see if she can be responsible with it. I thought that was a good plan.
We went into Verizon and were greeted at the door. I held up the iphone and the lady looked at me like I was I holding up this:
She said that I couldn't activate, that it wasn't worth anything - but that they could get me another phone. I told her, "I'm not paying anything for a phone today." She said, "Okay, I'll just give you an iphone 4." I looked at her suspiciously. Verizon is just giving away cell phones now? Are they a non-profit or something? I must say that I am completely ignorant to cellphones because my husband and I both have iphones for work. We haven't paid a cellphone bill in like 5 years. When it's time for a new phone, they just send a new phone. So I was in a new world that was strange and foreign. "So.... you are just going to give me an iphone? How can you do that?" She shrugged, "I'm the manager and we have a promotion right now." I still wasn't sure, I thought she was trying to get one over on me. "I'm not signing a contract. We're going to do prepay." "Why don't you want to do a contract?" I was honest, "Because I don't trust Verizon to be fair in their billing practices. I had Verizon before and they always charged us a crazy amount for roaming." Again, she looked at me like I just told her I came in a horse and buggy. "Ummm....we don't have roaming charges anymore." I wasn't signing any contracts. "I'm not doing it." She shrugged again, "Ok. You can prepay. I'll still give you the phone and I'll waive the activation fee." Whatever. She gave me over to someone else because I know she was sick of me.
The girl was very nice. She thought I was my daughter's older sister and I was very pleased. My daughter rolled her eyes at me. They set us up and I paid the 45 dollars for the first month and the case. Then I thought, why do people still have crappy flip phones when they are giving away free iphone for $45 a month with no contract with talk and text?
We were getting our receipt when this heavy old guy walked in. He was on his phone arguing about something. He walked up to the counter next to me and hung up the phone. Then he turned to me and the person ringing me up and started to vent. "I'm tired of that woman. All she does is bitch and complain. I buy her a nice house, she doesn't work and she is never happy. I can't take it!" Just let it out, dude. I whispered in my daughter's ear, "That's what dad is going to say about me when he is old." She laughed.
We walked out and she was so excited. We went over all the rules, which she promptly broke (which I will discuss in part 2 because it is a long story).
I still feel crappy that my 10 year old has a phone. I am a little ashamed that I am that mom. I ran into one of her friend's moms the following week and I asked, "Hey does Ally have a phone?" She looked at me a little embarrassed. "Yes. Because we are horrible parents. Sometimes we leave the kids home alone for an hour or so. That way we can stay in touch with her. I mean, we don't go far. Just the grocery store or lunch. I know we're such bad parents." I wondered why we don't hang out more. A self-deprecating, fellow bad mom is someone I can relate to.
So, yes, my 10 year old daughter has an iphone. I have officially given up all of my standards. Don't tell anyone.
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