We decided to quit ruining her life...
You may not know it because I'm so clever at disguising myself as a caring, attentive, fun-loving mother. But, a few weeks ago my daughter revealed the ugly truth, my husband and I were...ruining her life.
It's true. She's only 12, but her life was millimeters away from being completely ruined. Yes, utterly destroyed. Irretrievably broken. A shattered life. A life consigned to a gaping maw of emptiness and desolation.
She came to the edge of the abyss because J and I are tyrants of the first order-- presiding over a cruel regime with iron fists. The hallmark of our despotic regime that nearly ruined her life...no text messaging.
Yes, go ahead and read that last sentence again- No. Text. Messaging. Its true, we did get a cell plan with a most unattractive phone with no extra features for "emergency calls only" and most cruelly of all, no text messaging.
Allie, with the spirit of oppressed peoples beating with in her heart...rose up against our cruelty. Her battle cry included slogans such as:
"I'm a freak! Everybody text messages except me!"
"I have no social life because I can't text anyone!"
She even attacked mine and J's Luddite sensibilities, our sentimental attachment to the old days of rotary dial phones and four tv stations:
"You guys don't let me enjoy any technology of this century!"
and...
"You guys are ruining my life!"
Even though we enjoy wickedly lording over Allie and making her live in the stone-age, this statement gave us pause. Hmm...what are the "pros" and "cons" of ruining her life? She's already hurling insults at us and glaring at us. We checked with other cruel despotic parents such as ourselves- it seems they had adapted to this new text messaging world. As a parent, you have to pick your battles, should we waste the 'biggie' the ruining of her life over texting? Hmm, personally, I feel we should save up the ruining of her life when she dates some stupid, annoying boy that is nowhere near good enough for her. Yes, that's when I ruin her life by trotting out the naked baby pictures and the cookies laced with arsenic...
So for now, Allie has broken the bonds of our oppressive regime and breathes the sweet air of freedom, the freedom of text messaging on a totally cool phone.
It's true. She's only 12, but her life was millimeters away from being completely ruined. Yes, utterly destroyed. Irretrievably broken. A shattered life. A life consigned to a gaping maw of emptiness and desolation.
She came to the edge of the abyss because J and I are tyrants of the first order-- presiding over a cruel regime with iron fists. The hallmark of our despotic regime that nearly ruined her life...no text messaging.
Yes, go ahead and read that last sentence again- No. Text. Messaging. Its true, we did get a cell plan with a most unattractive phone with no extra features for "emergency calls only" and most cruelly of all, no text messaging.
Allie, with the spirit of oppressed peoples beating with in her heart...rose up against our cruelty. Her battle cry included slogans such as:
"I'm a freak! Everybody text messages except me!"
"I have no social life because I can't text anyone!"
She even attacked mine and J's Luddite sensibilities, our sentimental attachment to the old days of rotary dial phones and four tv stations:
"You guys don't let me enjoy any technology of this century!"
and...
"You guys are ruining my life!"
Even though we enjoy wickedly lording over Allie and making her live in the stone-age, this statement gave us pause. Hmm...what are the "pros" and "cons" of ruining her life? She's already hurling insults at us and glaring at us. We checked with other cruel despotic parents such as ourselves- it seems they had adapted to this new text messaging world. As a parent, you have to pick your battles, should we waste the 'biggie' the ruining of her life over texting? Hmm, personally, I feel we should save up the ruining of her life when she dates some stupid, annoying boy that is nowhere near good enough for her. Yes, that's when I ruin her life by trotting out the naked baby pictures and the cookies laced with arsenic...
So for now, Allie has broken the bonds of our oppressive regime and breathes the sweet air of freedom, the freedom of text messaging on a totally cool phone.
posted by moegirl at
8:40 PM
4 Comments:
I can't say much, not being a parent, but you are right pick and choose your battles.
I wonder if there is way of making kids realize how little some kids at that age have around the world.
And not every thing that you get said no to ruins their lives. As someone who grew up with less I can attest to some of these things. I was told "NO we can't afford that" and that was that. But hey diff time diff place.
Good luck it's easy for me to say you folks fight that battle :)
By
karmic, At
6:00 AM
Hahahahaaaa..... Poor Allie. Ruined at the age of 12. Would I have broken down? Dunno. Not there yet, thank goodness. I'd have enjoyed her ruination, though, because that's the sort of evil parent I am. I'd have laughed evilly and often over her misery. I'd have also extracted payment for the privilage of texting, in the form of onerous chores.
Come to think of it, I can't wait until I get to ruin my kids' lives. They're only under your dominion for such a short time until they grow up, leave and get to spend their instant millions on gold-plated phones and such.
By
Diana, At
6:01 AM
I've never text-messaged anyone in my life, so I can't imagine why anyone would want to do it, but my parents (really it was just my mom) put all sorts of life-ruining prohibitions on me (e.g., no junk food, no TV, no going to movies) that really did make me feel left out of the social scene.
Even with the perspective I have now, I wish my mom would have been more moderate. It's hard enough to fit in without having extra obstacles thrown your way. So I'd say if it's not that expensive to allow Allie to have text messaging, you should let her have it.
Just my two cents for what it's worth--remember I don't have kids or a cell phone (!) so I probably don't know what I'm talking about!!!!!
By
Rozanne, At
5:48 PM
Just make her pay for the messages! Having to fork over the $ herself will keep her from getting tendinitis in her thumbs from all the texting she wants to do... :)
By
Coffee-Drinking Woman, At
8:16 PM
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