I had a really good Christmas. I hope all of you did too. Some of you might remember my dilemma about whether or not to buy my 8 year old the cell phone she wanted. I decided against it.
I thought that was just far too young to give a child her own phone. I know that lots of other people think it's okay to do it. But I put my foot down.
And we got her a bunch of other stuff she wanted instead. Santa brought her a DVD player for her room so I don't have to watch her movies all the time. To me, that was spoiling her.
When I was her age, I didn't even have a TV in my room at all much less a movie player. I didn't get a TV and a VCR until I was in high school.
Plus I bought her an MP3 player too. Not a fancy iPod like she wanted, but it still holds 300 songs. She'll be hard pressed to find more than 50 songs she actually likes. The girl is 8.
Other than her Drake Bell CD she doesn't really listen to music that much unless she's in the car with us and the radio is on.
Anyhow, I think we spoiled her with gadgets and clothes and everything she wanted except the telephone. She seemed satisfied.
But then my mother in law decided to ignore our wishes. She bought her the cell phone. And the service is paid up for an entire year. I had no choice but to let it happen.
It's not like I could say no after she had the phone in her hot little hand. And I couldn't exactly lie and say I couldn't afford the service, because it was already paid for.
Why must my mother in law do this? We specifically told her no cell phone. But she said we were being unreasonable and did we really want our precious daughter to be the only child without a phone?
She's very good at ignoring us and doing what she wants, so she can look like the good guy. It's frustrating. She drives me crazy.
What can you do though? I'm stuck with her. And poor Melanie grew up with her. She still treats us like we're teenagers who don't know what the hell we're doing.
But we're all grown up now. She needs to stop trying to run our family because that's our job.
[sigh]
So my daughter has a phone now. She's pretty effing stoked about it though so I guess I can't be too mad. It's just the principle. I made a decision and I was ignored.
Just for a little payback though I told Harper to put Grandma Shannon's number on speed dial.
And I told her to call her all the time and tell her everything. Like what she ate for lunch.
And give her a nice play by play of the movie she was watching. And when school starts up again, call Grandma and ask her to help with the math homework.
And just for kicks, even though she already asked us this question, call Grandma and ask her where babies come from. That'll be good for a laugh.
Payback is a bitch. But at least I can entertain myself with it.
