Married In Ohio

Comment from Rosie
Time April 29, 2006 at 7:29 am

3000!! minutes seems like sooo very much. I had to up my plan because I was using close to 600 minutes. She seems to be talking a lot, but then young people do that these days - being wired is just essential.

Comment from DisappearingJohn
Time April 29, 2006 at 11:06 am

I just gave in and got my kids cell phones, but their big thing is text messages, as they can do that for free on this plan. They (two of them) share 700 minutes (not counting the evenings and weekends which are free)

I made each of them sign a contrat with me before getting the phone and I actually have seen a positive impact in their grades and the few troubling behaviors I was concerned about, so I guess its worked out.

I guess this is a little off topic for your question. I must admit, 3000 minutes is an awful lot… That’s 50 hours… an average of almost 2 hours a day…

Comment from Monkey
Time April 29, 2006 at 3:10 pm

3000 minutes is quite a bit…but if her grades and responsibilities are taken care of, then i wouldnt worry about it too much…

GB talks on the phone a lot too…but its the house phone, not a cell phone…there is a time limit per call, but no limit to how many she can make…unless, of course, she goes over the time limit…but she is pretty careful about it…

peace…

Comment from Annie
Time April 29, 2006 at 5:28 pm

When I was in my teens, I recall being on the phone an awful lot. As a matter of fact, it was so much that my parents had another line installed just for me. I will shamefully admit that I spoke for more than two hours a day on it, but with good grades, hnors clubs, and all my other activities taken care of, my parents never complained about it. So in answer to your question, yes, girls talk that much!! What do we talk about? I don’t even remember. Boys, clothes, perfume, and boys, probably. Yes, boys occupy that much time that I felt I should mention it twice.

Comment from Kelly
Time April 29, 2006 at 6:43 pm

Wow..I thought you had mistyped and meant 300?

I bought my oldest a cell for Christmas this year - he’s 13. But a boy is different. He seldom uses it - or can find it!

When I find my kids doing things in excess though - and don’t see any slippage in grades I just watch closely..make sure that the grades don’t dip as a result.

I wish there was an owner manual with every child!

enjoy your evening out!

Comment from Bex
Time April 29, 2006 at 9:16 pm

My son (17) uses WAY more text messages, which are included in our plan (I was smart with that!). He and I share like 1500 minutes, and calling each other is free (we have Sprint). I hardly ever use mine, so he mostly has the minutes, and we have never gone over that.

So…yeah….3000 is a lot, especially with texting. But…each child is different.

Comment from Midwestern City Boy
Time April 30, 2006 at 1:10 am

Rosie: I think that she is wired more than most. She’s on her THIRD cell phone. First she had the freebie that they give with new accounts. Then she had a sleek, small one. Now she has a camera phone that flips. She really uses them too. It’s a good thing that we have a plan that fits us.

DisappearingJohn: The four of us share 1000 peak minutes so each kid has 250. She generally stays within that and since The Boy never uses nearly that much, we’ve never gone over. I have suspended her telephone privileges periodically over the years for one infraction or another but she’s been doing really well recently. I don’t know how she can talk over 100 minutes a day and still get anything done but she has manages somehow.

Monkey: The only rule she has is no calls after midnight or before noon. She can talk as long as she wants on each call. The best punishment seems to be loss of telephone privileges but we haven’t had to do that in a while. Although she’s’ doing well I just winder if it’s excessive or if I’m just old fashioned. She’s got to be talking to somebody, so the parents of the girls she talks too are probably looking at their phone bills and wondering too.

Annie: The wired phone doesn’t ring nearly as much as it used to. It’s free but it’s so “uncool” to talk on these days, even though both kids have nice cordless phones. I used to find ether cordless phones all over the house. Now they are almost never off the cradle.

I’m not complaining but I am wondering how much is too much. Everyone related to my Mom is a talker including me but she talks a lot even compared with other people in my family.

And she is MUCH too young to be talking about boys. I know I am deluding myself. When I picked her up from the dance this evening, she was standing outside talking to two boys. I guess I’ll be happy so long as they just talk.

Kelly: We got them both phones for Christmas two years ago when they were 11 and 13. The Girl usually gets things earlier than he did since we often get them things at the same time. The boy can find his but usually only uses it to call when he’s out somewhere and needs to get picked up. I NEVER see him walking around the house talking on it. One thing I will say is that many of their calls are home or too my cell phone; they do make a very good effort to keep in touch and let us know what they are doing. And having a teenage boy two years older is no help. She does things he wouldn’t find interesting; so, we’re reinventing things all over again for her.

Bex: They are allowed to trade minutes (which don’t roll over) but they never do. We also have free mobile to mobile. Our plan is good for us and we don’t usually end up paying anything extra. But, I never expected to get a phone bill with so many pages of itemized charges.

Comment from Chickie
Time May 2, 2006 at 1:13 pm

Over 50 hours? Holy cow. Makes my ear hurt to think about it.

Though, I remember when I was a teenager and would be on the phone for 4 or 5 hours at a time!

Comment from Midwestern City Boy
Time May 4, 2006 at 1:43 am

Chickie: It’s like 2 hours a day. That’s a lot when you consider the internet time too. But good grades are the bottom line and she’s got those, so I’m silent.