She may not have a television in her bedroom, but my 8-year-old does have a popular link to the outside world plugged into her wall—a telephone.
Not a cellphone… a landline telephone.
Initially, I put it in there for emergencies. When my daughter was an infant, I used to nurse her in her room for hours, so I figured hooking up a corded phone in the corner of the room would be a good idea.
We kick it old school around here.
Though, I may be kicking myself very soon.
Right now, my daughter has no desire to sit in her room and chat on a landline phone, cordless phone, or cellphone.
However, I know that it is just a matter of time before the winds of change start blowing.
Soon, my daughter will hit the tweenage years and the telephone will be her medium of choice in which to communicate all the day’s juicy details with people other than her loyal and loving mother.
I’ll ask her what happened in school; she’ll answer “nothing,” and then run to her bedroom, pick-up the phone and relive every gripping moment with the same individuals she just spent the entire day with.
Of course, I could avoid the aforementioned scenario by simply removing the telephone from her bedroom. However, that may not end the battle if she chooses to use the cordless or mobile phone and head right back to her cave to converse with her peeps in private.
That’s the thing with phones and privacy: the more privacy a child is given, the longer she will remain on the telephone.
A phone is not so appealing without privacy. That goes double when you are dealing with chatty tweens.
Think about it; if you were to mandate that your child speak exclusively on a landline phone that was located in the kitchen, you can bet that the calls would be shorter and the content of the conversations a lot more wholesome, especially if mom, dad or a sibling is there to hear every syllable.
Now you know why I am considering pulling the plug on the bedroom landline.
Does your child have a phone in her room?