Strollerderby : phone

Mom Charged for Calling Son 49 Times a Day

JeanneSager — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:31:00 GMT

You can love your kids. Just don't LOVE your kids so much you start stalking them.

In a case of helicopter parenting gone absolutely sky high, a seventy-three-year-old Austrian woman has been charged with stalking her son after two straight years of calling him as much as forty-nine times a day for two and a half years.

That's an average of twice an hour! Break it down to just waking hours, and yikes!

The woman says she isn't able to talk to her son or daughter and has never met her fifteen-year-old grandchild. And she didn't think there was a reason for that? You've got to wonder what kind of smotherer she was when her kids were living at home. Did she chat them up through homework time and make them report in when they wanted to go to the bathroom?

I used to be a big phone person, and I still have one aunt who I can talk with for a straight three hours on the phone (with repeated interjections from my three-year-old and her four-year-old and seven-year-old, mind you). But that's not every day - or even every week.

What can a mother and child have to talk about forty-nine times in one day? We don't even talk to our spouses that much if you think about it - we might say more than forty-nine sentences, but "honey, can you get me another roll of toilet paper?" is hardly worth dialing out about.

Now that I'm a parent, I have a lot less time for talking on the phone, and this guy has a fifteen-year-old. What about you; do you talk to your parents more or less now that YOU'RE a parent?

Image: VBHComm (not stalker grandma)

Teen Sends Over $4,000 Worth of Text Messages in a Month

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:13:00 GMT

Last month, Verizon upped the price of text messaging to 20 cents per text. That still doesn’t seem like much money—unless you’re sending and receiving about 300 text messages a day.

That’s how a Wyoming teenager spent her school days, until her parents got a phone bill for $4,756.25. Because her family didn’t have a texting plan, they were charged for each of the approximately 20,000 text messages 13-year-old Dena Christofferson sent and received. A few hours after opening the bill, Dena’s shocked father smashed her cell phone to bits with a hammer.

Her texting addiction didn’t just break the family’s bank account. “She went from As and Bs one semester to Fs in two months," Dena's dad said. What do you expect, Dad? Texting takes time. It’s like haiku, composed of gossip and employing abbreviations for every other word.

I think Dena’s teachers are at least partly to blame for this. It’s disturbing that teachers did not notice—or chose not to discipline—a girl pounding away at her cell phone for nearly every minute of class.

On the bright side, Verizon agreed to lower the bill to a "reasonable" amount, and Dena's grades have gone way up since her phone met its untimely death.

Do your kids have cell phones? If so, do you have rules about texting?

Photo: 9 News

Booty Caller Texts When You're Ovulating

JeanneSager — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:57:00 GMT

Cervical mucus tests skeev you out? Me too. Don't worry, BabyCenter has stepped in to take the eww out of baby-making with ovulation text alerts sent straight to your cell phone.

The Booty Caller will send three messages your way every month to let you know when it's time to get a little . . . and when it's not.

The service is free (your wireless company's standard texting fees still apply), sponsored by First Response (who, wouldn't you know, make ovulation and pregnancy tests). BabyCenter's building off survey estimates that 19.3 million moms text as it makes the bid for a few more of their mobile minutes.

As one of those one-and-done Moms, I've got to say I can see the booty caller becoming Dad's worst enemy. Sorry honey - checked with my phone, and I'm too fertile for words. On the other hand, they do say you can enter his cell phone number into the mix too - so at least he can be prepared to be jumped when he walks in the door.

At the very least, it's cheaper than calling the psychic hotline again to find out when you're finally going to get that second baby.

Source: BabyCenter via YourTango

Image: First Response

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Does Your Toddler Need a Cell Phone?

editors — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:02:00 GMT

Here’s how a typical phone conversation between one of my youngest nephews and I goes:

Me: Hi! It’s Aunt Lindsay.

Him: Hi. (Long silence.)

Me: What are you doing right now?

Him: (Long silence. Heavy breathing. Crunching noises.)

Me: Are you eating something? Are you playing?

Him: Hi. (More silence followed by more heavy breathing.)

Me: Are you still there? Can you put your mom back on the phone? Where’s your mom?

Him: (Loud crash as the phone hits the floor. Pattering of little feet as he runs off to play.)

Me: (Calling out to my sister-in-law) Kristen? Kristen? Are you there?

Once I needed to tell my sister-in-law something really important and she put him on to say hi to me first. He dropped the phone, she forgot all about me and I ended up spending the next two hours calling back and getting a busy signal because the phone was, no doubt, still lying in the same position on the floor.

So I was truly bewildered today when I was reading the Daily Buzz and came across a posting called New Toddler Cell Phone. The phone features large, brightly colored buttons and is capable of holding 200 pre-programmed numbers (this just made me feel bad about myself as I don’t think I have that many numbers in my phone).

I feel like toddlers show little interest in having real phone conversations. They are probably just as happy, nay happier, talking on those toy phones that call their favorite Sesame Street characters, as they would be gabbing with their real-life friends, but maybe I am wrong. If you’d like to weight in on this topic, visit CaféMom and take their poll.

No matter what your opinion, I think we should all prepare ourselves for a new generation of toddlers, riding around in strollers and whipping out candy-colored Blackberrys to schedule their own play dates.

(Image from pro.corbis.com)

Gym Teacher Likes Girls A Little Too Much

JeanneSager — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:29:00 GMT

Another teacher, another sex scandal. Same unfortunate news, different day. But to make it interesting, Indiana gym teacher Brooke Biggs is accused of seducing a 16-year-old female student.

That I won't have to listen to some nasty radio DJ talking about the hot teacher and the lucky teenage boy is about the only silver lining to this story. Because I don't believe in the double standard for female teachers. Sorry, not even for a hot lesbian teacher.

That Brooke Biggs shares her name with a porn star doesn't make me laugh either (well, not much). The 27-year-old was in a South Bend, Ind. court late last week to answer two felony charges of child seduction. Biggs teaches seventh and eighth grade physical education and coaches at the local high school where the 16-year-old girl is a student. The investigation that led to Biggs' arrest was prompted by the girl's parents who first forbade the teen from having any contact with the teacher then found she was sneaking out anyway. Court documents allege Biggs' bought the girl a cell phone to replace one her parents had taken away, and the two allegedly exchanged hundreds of sexually explicit text messages.

Seems teenage girls do a little more than talk on the phone these days.

Image: WSBT

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Girl Talk May Fuel Anxiety

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:30:00 GMT

Naturally you want your children to have strong friendships, people they can trust to help them navigate social and emotional concerns. But there may be such a thing as too much talking.

Psychologists call it “co-rumination:” the tendency to dwell on a personal problem with a friend, seeking empathy and validation of your feelings. Anyone who’s responsible for paying a teenage girl's phone bill is probably more than a little familiar with this type of conversation: do you think he likes me? Is so-and-so mad at me? Should I break up with him?

As this tendency has started to figure more heavily into female friendships with the advent of MySpace, Facebook, cell phones, and email—which mean that the majority of friendships can be based on chatting or gossip, rather than activities—researchers have started to wonder if it’s such a healthy way for friends to relate with one another.

Indeed, several studies of third, fifth, seventh, and ninth graders have shown that co-rumination can lead to increased anxiety and depression in girls, at least in the short term. Obsessing about a problem with a friend can make that problem seem bigger than it is—and worries can be contagious: if my best friend is so concerned about how many times a week her boyfriend calls her, maybe I should be, too.

Researchers found that emotional conversations did not affect boys negatively, perhaps because they occur less often or because the tone is different. Boys may be more likely to focus on solutions to problems instead of just venting them, which psychologists say is the most effective way to converse.

One way parents can help their daughters avoid this self-perpetuating cycle of anxiety, obsession and validation, and hence more anxiety is to encourage your children to come to you for advice, so they get the perspective of age at least some of the time. Any other tips for parents to help their daughters most effectively deal with emotional upsets?

Photo: New York Times

Strollerderby : phone

Mom Charged for Calling Son 49 Times a Day

Mom Gets OK to Collect Dead Son's Sperm

Teen Sends Over $4,000 Worth of Text Messages in a Month

Why Do Parents Cheat at the Easter Egg Hunt?

Teen Sends Over $4,000 Worth of Text Messages in a Month

Booty Caller Texts When You're Ovulating

They Say: Prenatal Folic Acid Not So Good After All

Juno Goes to Washington? Congress' First Unwed Mom

Male Blogger: Laboring Mom Not a 'True Emergency'

No, the Vagina Doesn't 'Heal Up and Close' from Disuse

New Dad Forgives Guy Who Stole Camera With Birth Footage

Does Your Toddler Need a Cell Phone?

Gym Teacher Likes Girls A Little Too Much

Girl Talk May Fuel Anxiety