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Disclaimer:
no senior citizens, or citizens of any age who fit into this
category of cell phone users were meant to be harmed by this post.
I'm merely stating my frustration, er opinion, regarding how SOME
seniors (and others, like Our Youngest Teen) use their cell phones.
The
cell phone is a marvelous invention. We can call someone who is NOT
at their home! I don't mean to call to have a long, meandering,
private conversation that everyone in the waiting room has to listen
to one side of. I'm talking about important things like suppose
you've got the pukey flu, and your dear mother is at the grocery
store fetching some items for you, only you forgot to say diet ginger
ale, so you try her cell phone.
Except
The Nutritionist's definition of cell phone is an item I keep in my
car to make an emergency call to my husband should I need assistance.
She doesn't carry it in her purse. She doesn't turn it on unless
she wants to make a call. What's a pukey girl to do?
Call
The Swede, who always has his cell phone, in fact, has bluetooth in
his car so that he can safely answer EVEN IF HE'S DRIVING. This, by
the way, is the highest level of cell phone usage. Always at the
ready, and SAFE.
The
Swede, who is just the best Dad in the whole world DRIVES TO THE
GROCERY STORE to intercept the cell-less one, and adds the ginger ale
to the cart. Talk about going out of your way to help a girl. I get
my precious ginger ale, and feel a bit better.
My
parents aren't the only ones who treat their cell phones this way.
The pattern is almost the same with my in-laws, The Advocate and The
Boss. My father-in-law is an attorney (no, I don't think he'll ever
retire – he's just having too much fun as an expert consultant) and
his cell is his business cell, so I'm more likely to find it on.
However, The Boss, my dear mother-in-law who has been through the
wringer health wise in the last two years (she wins...you've heard
about me in snippets, but she wins...believe me) has been in and out
of the hospital, the rehab hospital, and so he's been required to
turn it off, so he's been harder to reach the last two agonizing years.
I don't think I've ever reached her on her cell.
However, she's a step ahead of The Nutritionist – her phone is at
least in her purse.
It's
not just seniors who have phone use issues that don't match MY
definition of what a cell phone is for, and this particular example
is a 13 year old child. Mine. When he started riding his bike to
school, I needed him to have a phone so he could call and say, “I
crashed my bike, come help.” However, he forgets to bring it,
forgets to charge it, forgets to look at it...
I've had to result to punishment (didn't work...) and now I'm actually BRIBING him to use it. I thought, “Teenager. New technology. Wow, he's going to love this present.” Not so much. This boy who plays MineCraft, wants to be an engineer (electrical), can take apart a hobby grade (read outrageously expensive) RC car, water proof the important parts, put it back together again, won't use his phone. What's a mom to do? Five days in a row of texting me before you leave school and I'll buy you a blizzard. I wonder if The Nutritionist can be bribed...
I've had to result to punishment (didn't work...) and now I'm actually BRIBING him to use it. I thought, “Teenager. New technology. Wow, he's going to love this present.” Not so much. This boy who plays MineCraft, wants to be an engineer (electrical), can take apart a hobby grade (read outrageously expensive) RC car, water proof the important parts, put it back together again, won't use his phone. What's a mom to do? Five days in a row of texting me before you leave school and I'll buy you a blizzard. I wonder if The Nutritionist can be bribed...
How
do you use your cell phone? Have you run into these issues with the
older generation? Do your children have phones? Do they use them?
Or am I the only one going nuts trying to reach people who HAVE
phones but don't USE their phones...
