8nt Texting Gr8? LOL

I just realized I’m inadvertently and unwittingly teaching my daughter what I consider to be a bad habit: incessant texting. Let me start by saying I hate texting, really I do. Not only is my cell phone ill-equipped to properly do the job in an even semi-timely manner, but I prefer to actually converse with people.

Believe me, I understand why people like it. You can quickly and easily let someone know you’re on your way, running late, whatever. I get it. And in the beginning, I thought it was sort of cool that our birth mom texted (that’s not even a real word!) me at least once a week throughout her pregnancy, and really cool that she texted me during labor (“getting ready 2 push…”). No joke. (Though I later found out that the text reading: “In delivery, head almost out” was actually written by the birth father, it was still cool.)

But now our son is four months old and I’m still getting texts. Several texts a week. And if I don’t respond within a couple of hours, I get the same text again.

People who know me well know I’m not a cell phone user. I basically have it for emergencies. I prefer good, ol’ fashion communication; you know, talking on the (land line) phone or face to face. Even emailing. So this texting several times a week (several texts per exchange, of course) is making me crazy. But more importantly, it’s turned my four year old daughter into a texting maniac.

Using a piece of paper, her plastic princess phone (*groan* given to her by our neighbor), or even her palm, our daughter texts her (make believe) sister, her “boyfriend” as she calls him (the 14 year old, yes 14, next door that she has a crush on), or even our son’s birth mom. She does this at the dinner table, in her bedroom, in the car. At first it was kind of cute. Look at our daughter, all grown up and texting, I’d said to my husband.

But that’s just it. “All grown up” at four. Call me old fashioned, call me behind the times. Whatever. Pre-teen, teen, young adult—it comes at you fast. The longer I can keep my kid a kid, the better in my opinion.

Yeah, it’s just texting, what’s the harm? It’s not so much the “harm.” It’s just that I want to raise children that interact and engage with others, not bury their noses in cell phones, texts, computers, video games. They can bury their noses in books, that’s cool with me.

Okay, it seems I’ve gotten a bit preachy; not my intent. (sorry!) My daughter takes her cue from me and here’s what’s on my list for 2010: less texting, more talking.

Though I will admit, I think it’ll be pretty cool for our son to read all the texts his birth mom sent during the three months prior to his arrival (I’m writing them out and saving them in his baby book). Oh how the adoption times have changed!