Phoning It In

Alyssa has asked for the last six months or so about when she’ll get a phone of her own.

Oh, how I laugh when she asks that. One reason I laugh is, duh, phones cost money and girlfriend has no money. Hahahaha.

The other reason I laugh is that Alyssa hates talking on the phone. So why would she want/need a phone? One word: games.

She’s discovered that there are some nifty phones out there that have *gasp* games and internet capabilities on them. Neither Tom nor I have such phones, boring parents that we are. But my brother has one such phone and Alyssa is in awe of it. She fights with my nephew for this phone whenever my brother is around.

Yesterday while waiting in line at Taco Bell for my lunch (what?) my phone rang. I looked at the number and recognized it as the home phone of one of Alyssa’s friends. I ignored the phone, collected my lunch and exited the building.

Once I was in the car, the phone rang again. It was the same number. This time I answered.

Alyssa’s friend Abby asked in her sweet little nine year old voice, “Is Alyssa there?”

I gently told her that I was at work and that she’d called my cell phone. I promised Abby that I’d have Alyssa call her at 5:00 that evening, which was the soonest I’d actually be with Alyssa that day.

When I got to my mom’s house to pick the girls up, I told Alyssa that her friend had called her. She grinned. But when I handed her my phone so she could return Abby’s call, Alyssa paled. The mere thought of dialing that number and asking whomever answered if she could speak to Abby terrified her.

Like I mentioned, Alyssa hates talking on the phone. She always has. As a very little girl, she never wanted to ‘chat’ with my mom or Tom on the phone. She’d listen and maybe nod a few times but she wasn’t one of those kids who wanted to sit and jabber into the phone.

I finally offered to call Abby’s house for her. I told Alyssa I’d call and ask for Abby and once she was on the phone, I’d hand the phone back to Alyssa. She was all for that.

And it once it was Alyssa and Abby on the phone, they talked for almost 15 minutes.

I’m not sure I did myself any favors by pushing Alyssa into making that phone call, now that I think about it. But I’m glad she got to talk to her friend and that she’s one step closer to getting over her phone aversion. I think.

It’s probably for the best that most of her friends’ parents still have landlines from which those friends can call my cell. We wouldn’t want these 4th graders to figure out that they can text each other, would we? The very thought makes me shudder.