Blame it on the jeans

We finally broke down and got our middle-schooler a phone.  But not for all those reasons people suggest getting a 12-year old an expensive (I didn't even want to ask my husband how much it cost) toy with a monthly fee.  She might need to call me if I'm late picking her up: why, why would she need to call me?  I'm late - wait 'til I get there.  She may need to tell me her bus is running late: I'd figure that out when the bus didn't come.  She forget her homework/lunch: too bad, I don't deliver homework/lunch to school.  She needs to ask me something: she's in school she doesn't need to ask me anything.  I need to remind her I'm picking her up: by the time she gets my phone message, she'll be on the bus, so I call the school office, anyway.  She's finished practice early: wait, surely the adults in charge won't leave her by herself and, I'm sure they have their own phone to call me if needed.  Nope, I wasn't moved for any of those reasons.  So what was it, why did I decide to get her the phone?

When I was in middle and high school, the cool girls had designer jeans.  If they didn't, they had something else - LeSac purses or new sneakers or great neon off-the-shoulder sweatshirts, but mostly, they had the jeans.  I never had any of that stuff.  I know, poor me, right?  Could my parents afford them?  I don't know.  That was never the point - they just said they weren't getting them, I didn't need them.  I was never picked on or anything like that, but I still felt left out of the "look at my Jordache" conversations.  It didn't seem like a big deal, but since its still affecting my decision making almost 30 years later, maybe it was bigger than I thought.

So, because I never had a pair of Jordache jeans, we got our daughter a phone, and her dad being the tech-y, she's got a pretty cool phone.  And for good measure, my other daughter has a everything-but-a-phone device.  They're ever grateful to Santa, but they should be thankful to their grandmother, too.

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