Are You Addicted To Your Cell Phone?

Since when have little kids become cell phone addicts like business people?

Recently my family and I went on a trip with some old friends to the beach, kids and all. One of my friends daughters’ came along, and it was astounding for me to see a third grader obsessing over my cell phone and how cool it was. “Oh Jeni you have a blackberry, that’s so cool! Can I use it?”

My daughter made the mistake of letting her use her phone for a few short minutes, and that’s when all hell broke loose. She took the phone away, and every five minutes, Karsyn, the little girl, was asking to use it again. Every time my daughter would say no, (per Karsyns mom) it got to the point where she had to hide her phone or the little girl WOULD find a way to take it, no matter what the consequences.

We went out to dinner the first night we got there, and the whole time she talked about cell phones. After we wouldn’t give in and let her use ours, she got out her little Disney digital camera and pretended like she was texting on it. Except, it wasn’t like pretending, she honestly thought it was real. Every day for the rest of the trip when my daughter was away she would say to me, “Why is KD texting me so much, gosh!”

It was actually quite funny to watch KD get paranoid about her nice cell phone that she saved up for herself to the point that she switched back to her old phone every time she was around the little girl. But that sparked yet another problem. Karsyn noticed KD had TWO phones, and from there it was always “Miss Jeni, why cant I have KD’s other phone?”
Honestly now, it would be a huge problem for some of us if we didn’t have our cell phones. They connect us to everything. But third graders? C’mon now, that’s just trouble. I felt so terrible for the little girls mom, because she kept stealing her moms phone as well, and we watched the phone bill rise (surprisingly fast for a child).

Honestly now, whatever happened to the childhood we all know and remember? The one with the genuine fun times and no material possessions holding us back from seeing what life is really about. Even my daughter (who’s only 16) thinks its crazy how fast little kids think they have to grow up now.

We’ve officially decided that for Karsyns birthday we’ll get her the nicest tin cups our budget will allow and some fine string so she can have her super cool cell phone once and for all.