I don’t know how mothers did this single mom thing before cell phones. I’m tethered to mine and so is Hailey. I don’t know what I would do if I could not reach her at any time.
Being a working single mother meant that Hailey has always been on her own a lot. Thanks to cell phones she could call me anytime she was frightened and I could call her anytime I just wanted to know she was ok.
Hailey got her first phone when she was twelve. Lots of people told me that was too young but for us, it felt right. At twelve she had a little more freedom, wasn’t always in the house after school, went to her friends houses more often. It just felt right to get her a phone.
I could get in touch with her no matter where she was, I needed that comfort. To me if I couldn’t be with her I wanted to know that she could get in touch with me at anytime. I’ve always told Hailey if you are ever anywhere and you feel uncomfortable, call me and I’ll come get you. It’s much easier to text that than to say it with people around you.
We had a code, when Hailey felt like she might not be in a good situation she would text me her code word and I would call and tell her I had to come pick her up, right now.
This made it easy for her to leave somewhere she wasn’t comfortable without drawing attention to herself. It made me feel better knowing she always had that out.
There were some scary times though. Times I would call and call and call just to be met with her voice mail time after time. Those times almost made my heart stop. When she didn’t answer by the second time I called I would imagine all kinds of horrible things.
Today Hailey called and I had taken the dog to the vet and left my phone, I felt naked without it but at the same time liberated. I came home to my daughter walking the floor, repeatedly calling my phone. Now she knows how it feels.