|
My oldest daughters are 17 and 15. So yes, we have unlimited texting. Our wireless company charges us quite a bit for that feature, but any questions over the cost benefit disappeared the month that they accidentally left one daughter out of the unlimited plan. One teen, one month, one thousand dollars.
The phone company caught the error before we received the bill and called to warn us. It was their fault, and they would fix it. Don’t worry, the call assured us.
Of course, one of the teenagers answered the phone. So we never got the message. Let’s just say that when you open the phone bill and instead see a mortgage payment, it’s a bit of a shock. Almost as shocking is finding out at the end of an enraged hour and a half phone call to customer service, “We called to inform you of the billing error two weeks ago.”
I was never much of a texter, but since we’re paying for it, and since it’s my daughters’ preferred means of communication, I’ve been getting a crash course. I’ve even mastered T9Word, although I still need to ask one of the girls to “get it back” when I accidentally turn it off by pressing a mystery button.
I need to proof read my texts better rather than placing my blind trust in T9Word. I inadvertently threatened my daughter with physical abuse after her detention, because SHAKING YOU UP and PICKING YOU UP are formed with the same combination of buttons in T9Word.
And when extra innings kept me at the stadium until nearly midnight, the next morning, I told my wife that the “call hand last might word of out” instead of “ball game last night wore me out.”
Playing with T9Word is actually very informative. For instance, did you know that KID and LIE are spelled the same way? (One of the girls pointed out that LIPS and KISS are too. She’s grounded. Not for as long as if she’d informed me of the similarities between LOVE and LOUD, or ANY and BOY, but grounded nonetheless.)
My daughters tell me that I text the wrong way. It’s quantity over length. They’d rather hear from me ten times in a minute and a half than have to scroll down in a message. I learned that after writing to both girls at bed time, telling them good night, that I loved them, and that I was proud of them. I received the following responses:
“K”
“Same”
I also decided to check in mid-day with one of them, and sent them an appropriately short “Hey.” A few minutes later, she wrote back, “Your jacket was not there.”
I called to ask what that meant (a real faux paux. Never reply to a text with an actual call) and it turned out she thought I was “a different Shawn.”
“Why don’t I show up as Dad in your phone?” I asked.
“Please,” she said. I don’t want anyone to know my dad is calling!”
It just goes to show you. You can’t spell DAUGHTER without first spelling FATIGUE.
| 
