Really?

Tomorrow is our Daughters birthday and she will be 11. We have been shopping for over a week for clothes, shoes, purses, earrings, belts, and so on. We have been to 2 malls and about 30 stores outside of that and managed to get some good deals but more importantly, very cool clothes!! You should have seen her face when we laid them all out & put the outfits together with all of the accessories. What a priceless memory!!

Jump forward 2 days to this hot & muggy Tuesday. We got her a phone. Yes her 1st cell phone. We could have taken back everything we had bought the week before and she wouldn't have minded a bit. I think there was a power surge at the store her smile was so big and bright!

Now for the kicker. She took the thing, right out of the box and started using it. Mind you she has not ever used this kind before, only mine or Travs Razr's. This is not even the same brand. Within 10 minutes she is texting, has a good amount of #'s in her phonebook and has changed the background and ringtones. So I proceed to tell her how proud I am that she has figured it out all on her own, she is very smart. NOT SO MUCH!!! Because she didn't even see the next sentence coming. "Wow, so if you are so smart that you can get your phone going so quickly without help, SURELY you are going to have a GREAT year at school!!!"

silence.....

"Really?" "Mom, this is different! This is just a phone! Phones are fun! I like using my phone! If I dial the wrong # I don't get into trouble or a bad grade!" And my favorite..."Mom, uhhhhh, never mind."

Really? That got me thinking. I remember that our son had a time memorizing his multiplication tables, but the 4352 (just a guess) pokemon were not a problem. He did come around and is actually very good in math now, along with his other subject. In fact he starts college this fall. But that is another post.

So, perhaps this is the start of when she realizes that Mom and Dad are not above bribery and will use the phone to get what they want out of her. After all, I am an old pro now, right? I mean, what kind of parent uses the Power Rangers, Pokemon, TMNT, the Nintendo, the Playstation, the GameCube, the XBox and so on as a means of motivation?

Me. Really!!!