I have wanted my youngest daughter to have a phone for a while now. It gets tiring calling her friends when I want to contact her.  She has claimed not to really need a phone because so many of her friends have them, so she can just borrow one when she wants to make a call.  I finally decided that it was time for her to stop borrowing others' phone, and get her own.

She only wanted an iPhone.  The cheapest one on the market is really quite affordable when compared to all the fancy Blackberries.  The base price of $99 for a phone that does so much seems like a deal -- until you realize that all that it does is going to cost you on a monthly basis ($30 a month).  Add in a new line ($10 a month) and unlimited texting for the family (another $30 month).  Pow! My phone bill next month will almost double.

It makes you wonder if it is really worth it.  Mothers for centuries, millennia, have been able to keep track of their children without cell phones.  Kids communicated without texting back in my high school days, but my freshman daughter insists you can’t have a social life without making hundreds (if not thousands) of texts per month.

I gave in, and my daughters are so happy.  It’s funny how spending lots of money on them does that.  I am hoping it is worth it.  I may change my mind after I get my phone bill.