Parenting Teens

I’ve talked a little bit about my kids and their cell phones before, and couldn’t help but smile when Sarah, from AT&T emailed last week, asking if I was the kinda cool mom who uses text messages to communicate with her kids - answer? YES.

Well, we all already knew I was cool, anyway.

My son uses his phone and texts on a ‘whatever, ok, fine’ sorta basis. My daughter, of course, is attached to her cell phone with an umbilical cord of need, because OMG what if someone forwards something and she BREAKS THE CHAIN and HOW will she EVER get KISSED if THAT happens? Let alone know what her friends REALLY think of her! (Describe me! Hot, Sexy, Nice, OMGUGLY - send to all friends, see who rly loves you!) It’s not only my actual teenagers either - it’s all the teens that I’ve acquired by default too. I have more teenagers numbers on my phone then adults, I think, and they text me Every. Single. Day.

Oh yes. Every forward (Remember the good ole days of chain letters, and email fwds?!) is received no less then 5 times, interspersed with “Hi mom! Dinner time? Come get me!” messages. My poor little phone is overworked and underpaid - well, not really, since I spend a mini-fortune for unlimited texting, because it’d be a MAJOR fortune to pay per message! Since my phone doesn’t demand that I delete my inbox every 20 messages or so, (and my kids’ DO! ha!) I delight in showing off my message totals to them daily. This morning? 1393 in the inbox and 1179 in the outbox.

Not only am I cool? but look at the difference there - that’s how may forwards that I broken the chain. MUHAHHAHA! Maybe that’s why I haven’t been kissed in so long…

Anyway, the reason for Sarah’s message, was to point out a survey done by AT&T recently, that shows Texting is the new way for parents to communicate with their teenagers, without the teens feeling like we’re pushing. The survey even suggests that asking your kids where they are and when they’ll be home via text is less likely to receive eye rolls and grumblings and get you an actual answer! Or at lest, if they do roll their eyes at your poor texting skills, you can’t SEE it, or HEAR it in their voices. SCORE!

At the base level, texting is wildly popular with teenagers. Why shouldn’t you join in the fun? They don’t feel hounded, they can zap you a reply quickly, and they know that you are thinking of them. Trust me - despite their protestations, they WANT to know you are thinking of them! It also isn’t as embarrassing to them as it might be when their friends are nearby and hear you desperately trying to get them to say they love you. In public. In front of their friends. Ha! They can text “ilu2″ (I love you too) faster then fast, and their friends are none the wiser!

Sarah also included a couple links for the parents who aren’t so text savvy as myself, with some fun How Too information for the timid texting parent. There’s the video below, which makes me laugh every time I see it because CLEARLY that child is not old enough to be texting - and also, the mom’s a dork. Check it out:

Also, part of the AT&T Text2Connect program had Dr. Ruth Peters, a clinical psychologist and parenting expert (Wait! Don’t run away! Trust me!) working together to help aid parents and teens communicate through texting. There’s a great PDF that is worth the read - if only for the list of acronyms that you might find yourself trying to decipher!

We all want to communicate better with our teenagers - that’s a given. Teenagers can often be surly beasts that merely grunt aloud, making it more difficult then we expected. Why wouldn’t we take every opportunity to get an ‘ilu2′ from our kids, as well as an non-invasive way to keep tabs on what they’re doing, who their with, and when they’ll be home so we can breathe again?

So text your kids. Even if you end up like that guy on that commercial - pushing your budget meeting to another day just so you can spend more time texting your family (I LOVE that commercial!) - you won’t regret it, I promise.

l8r!

PS: Oh yes. I used a glitter graphic. I am SO COOL! (Stop laughing, kids.)