Charlotte got her own phone as one of her Christmas presents. They are installing her line in a couple of days. It will have three-way calling. It will have call-waiting. It may just save my sanity.
It just hit me how relieved I’m gonna be when they get the new line put in. I’m not much of a phone person, really, but the situation now is pretty much this:
You want to make a call? Fine. The phone is in use. The phone is always in use. So, you’ll have to walk upstairs and tell Charlotte to please get off the phone for a minute so that you can make a quick call. Then, you’ll need to stupidly walk back downstairs, thinking she might have actually listened to you. A moment or two later, you will still be standing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for her to say, “Gotta go.” The words will never come. By the time you finally realize those words are not coming, you’ll know WAY more than you ever wanted to know about who has a crush on whom in Charlotte’s 5th grade class. Then it will be time to project your meanest parental voice back up the stairs and SHOUT, “Charlotte, I told you I need to use the phone. Tell her you’ll call her back, and HANG UP NOW.” After another 30 seconds or so of hee-hawing, Charlotte will hang up.
Congratulations, you have completed the requirements for using the phone! Enjoy!
We got Lucy her own phone line too. I can’t remember exactly how old she was. Pre teens, I think. I don’t think we even waited until a birthday or Christmas came around; we just went out and bought the damn thing so we could have some semblance of our lives back.
Some parents get stuffy about it…”*I* never had my own phone! *She’s* not getting her own phone either!” Etc. etc.
Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Sheesh. I just shake my head and shrug. What purpose is there in denying them a phone? Other than promoting fighting and strife amongst the entire family? GET ‘EM A PHONE! GEEZ! Good for you, Debbie.
Ah yes, I remember it well. I remember getting on the other phone and trying to join in the silly conversation by saying the same thing happened to me with a guy I work with. It didn’t work though – it just moved the eye-rolling stage up a couple years.
My parents got me a phone line when I was 12. It was either that, or get me my own apartment.
my 2 girls have their own phones–anything to keep peace sometimes:)
very nice blog!!! 🙂
The great thing about having an older sister (or brother) is that they do all the fighting with parents and pave the road ahead for you so that once you reach the age when you want to have your own phone, you can get it with minimal hassle.