Phone Frenzy

Hello. My name is Jess and I have a 13 year old daughter who is a texting addict. I totally think there should be a 12 step program for this sort of thing. Miss Lady's parents recently gave her a cell phone with unlimited calling and texting. They've complained about having to pay child support to the county each month, but have money for this? Okay, that's a whole other thing...

Miss Lady has been following our ground rules which consist of not using her phone before 7 am or after 9 pm. Those are the hours that she's awake. We had a little problem when we discovered that she's got internet access on her phone. We allow the kids to use the internet for very specific things, but they must have another person in the room with them who can see what they are looking at. It's an accountability precaution. We've asked her not to use the internet option on the phone, and currently we're trusting her word on it since she's been very honest with us so far.

The real downsides that I've noticed so far are that Miss Lady is never really a part of family activities lately because she's always on the phone. She's also irritable when she gets interrupted. We had a talk with her about that and she's been working on her attitude. I've definitely learned from this experience that I don't want my own children to have cell phones until they are old enough to drive. Then they'd have a legitimate need for one. Meanwhile I will smile nicely and try to be "cool" about this little device that has stolen Miss Lady's presence from us even when she's in the same room. I'm not into texting, but maybe I can get a chance to talk with her for a few minutes if I call her?