Cell Phone Wars

So the debate I have had about when a child is old enough to have a cellphone has ended. My daughter of 13 years has talked about having one for probably oh, 13 years now. Christmas Eve when she opened her gifts from me she could not believe that she was seeing this:

I caved, and I will tell you why. Honestly, I do not believe she needed a cell phone. She did not go anywhere that she was not with either me or her dad. At home, we have a land line. So that was always my argument. You are not old enough. There is no need for one.

Then it happened. She went to the mall one weekend with a friend and the friend's grandmother. The went shopping and to a movie and I had no way to get in touch with her. Sure, I could have called the grandmother, but to save her from any teenage embarrassment, I did not. I decided it was time to take the plunge and give her what she's always wanted.

When I purchased the 'plan' for it, I got unlimited texting, shared minutes, rollover, and then it came down to data usage. I looked at the girl with slight confusion. 200 mb of data usage for $15 a month, or 2GB of usage for $25. I went with the cheaper of the two. Surely, that would be plenty.

I was wrong. The first week she had her phone, she had used 65 percent of her data usage for the month. So I had to warn her to slow down. We have wireless Internet at home, but when she's at her dad's for the weekend, no downloading, etc. By the second week, she had exceeded her limit! Grrrr! So I went ahead and upgraded her package to the 2GB.

While I was in my online account, I came across the text usage. We have a family plan now, so both of our lines are on my account together. I came across our text message totals.

In one week, over 5,700 text messages!! Like OMG!!! And WTH?? And oh thank GOD for unlimited text messaging!