Day 197 The Perfect Mom Project

There was big excitement at our house yesterday; Avery got a cell phone! This goes against everything that I stood for just a few short years ago, my how the mighty have fallen. I stood high on my "no cell phones for my kids" mountain, looking down at all the parents giving in to their kids and smirking. I was never going to let my kids have a cell phone until they were driving.

 It started when Ashleigh got her first car; we gave her a phone to keep in her glove box for emergencies. She was a senior in high school at the time. She tells the story to this day that it was the size of a sofa cushion. When she went off to college we upgraded just a little and after a year or so of us trying to share minutes (HUGE mistake) she ended up getting her own phone and plan. Then you might recall that last fall I went in to the phone store with Aly to get a new phone for me and signed her up on my old phone. That was a big step and I really struggled with it.

 Now here we were, faced with Avery needing a phone for a school trip and the idea of adding minutes to our pay as you go phone. We figured out that we would spend more adding on minutes then we would just by getting a new phone for her. Once we got to the phone store things just started fallen into place (or all Hell broke loose). Mark was looking for a new phone for work and with his phone came the opportunity to have up to 4 free smaller phones. Hhhhhmmmnn, this sounded like a great deal! So suddenly I was coming off the high and mighty mountain and wallowing with the rest of America. So Mark, Aly and I ended up with new phones and Avery got my old (yet still new) phone. The passing on of the old phone was more symbolic, since we could have gotten her a phone, but I felt that since we had fallen so far off the mountain, that this might be a small redemption. At least I was not giving her a brand new phone right? Plus, from a sibling stand point, Aly had my last hand me down, and it seemed fair to do that for Avery.


I am sure that for Ashleigh she is watching all this and scratching her head wondering how any of this is fair. Her middle sister got a phone at 14 years old and now her youngest sister is texting and talking at the ripe old age of 13 years old. All I can tell you my sweet girl is that you have blazed the trail for your sisters and there are so many more trails left it will be a never ending unfair journey! While Ashleigh is scratching her head, I am hanging mine in shame for all the years I acted so much better than the rest of the cell phone users in America. I will fall in with the pack now, just like a good little sheep….Baaaaaaa.