Sometimes I Hate Cell Phones

When the big walkie talkie cell phone came out  I thought I was living in the Jetson's age.

I feel like my parents were born in the Flintstones era and  raised us during the Leave it to Beaver years. All in all I felt pretty stinkin' lucky.

My dad didn't make a whole Lotta money so we were spared being Brady Bunch nerds but I secretly wished to be riding that Partridge family bus...I always knew I could be a good tambourine player if they just bought an old school bus and gave me the chance.

Didn't happen...

What DID happen was I ended up in the same boat as my parents. I have three kids... we're no where near to being rich but  are happy and healthy.

The cell phone craze has me all stirred up. If I didn't have kids I would leave my cell phone off and in my car when I went to work. After the Columbine episode I bought my then sixteen year old son a cell phone and demanded he keep it on at all times.

After 9/11 I bought cell phones for my younger two when they reached middle school. I felt pretty secure when they were in elementary school because I worked at their school and was just an intercom call away.

I don't know how many times women have caught me on my cell phone in the restroom at work talking to my kids and  have said to them "How did my mother raise three kids without a cell phone?"

She did  because we were raised in the Andy Griffith/ Leave it to Beaver years.

I wish my kids HAD that advantage but they didn't.

Once you start having kids and technology grows more rapidly than they do...you need to use  the technology to your advantage, and I did.

What kills me are lazy people that use technology as a crutch and an excuse to check themselves out of the scheme of civility and politeness.

Case in point...We have a sign on the front door of our restaurant..."No cell phones, please."

I LOVE IT!

Granted it's a rule we bend and make concessions for...but sometimes I wonder where people's common sense has gone?

I won't even talk on my cell  when I reach the check out counter at the gas station or grocery store. It may be 2011 and they may just be a cashier but for Pete's sake...DON'T BE RUDE!

Another stickler is people talking on a two way or speaker phone. Do we really  have to hear the entire conversation when hearing only one side for an extended length of time is way too much?

I waited on a table today and one of the women held her phone in front of her face for a good five minutes while I (including the four tables around her) listened to her conversation, which didn't sound like a chat with the President about whether to push the button on the red phone and star a nuclear war.

I decided I was being harsh and retreated.

 Then her husband got on his phone with HIS buddy and had another five minute "OUT LOUD" chat. It went on for another two minutes and I went to the table and said loudly (I say every thing loudly) "Okay...who wants tiramisu or  creme brulee...how about an espresso?"

His wife did the  "NOT NOW" sign with her hand knuckle side up going back and forth under her chin which inspired me to say "Just let me know what else I can do for you ... we can put some dessert in a box  for later and you'll be glad to have it when you get home...just let me know!"

I know cell phones are here to stay and I as a mother am glad to have them. I just want people to realize when to use and when NOT to use them.

 Emergencies...definitely!

 Random conversations not so much... or at least keep them private where we don't all feel like we are listening to an episode of "Dragnet"or "One Adam Twelve."

 (Younger readers ask your parents)

JUST SAYIN'....and not on a cell on speaker phone!

Til next time..COTTON!!