The phone bill and 6-year-old logic
Mar. 8th, 2009 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maya_nyA little melt down demonstrated by Becky started innocent enough; she wanted to know what is a phone bill. The child was utterly surprised to find out that you have to pay money to buy a cell phone and then you have to pay even more money every month to make phone calls.
What started as an innocent question from Becky resulted in a hysterical child crying that she does not want to pay her $3 (all the money she has left now after her shopping spree at the school's book fare) for a phone, and in fact, she does not want the phone, and "mommy please don't make me get the phone and pay money for it".
Of course, a parenting realist that I am, I had to tell Becky that her $3 will not get her far in terms of the cell phone and that we pay almost $100 every month for the 3 cell phones that we have. This number had completely flabbergasted her. Further crying about how she does not want the phone because she does not have the job and does not have money to pay for the phone ensued.
The whole thing ended well enough. A quick explanation that first of all, no child in the first grade needs his or her own phone, second, that when she gets older and has a job and wants the phone we will help her find something cheaper since she will have one phone and not 3 like us, and third, if she older, but not old enough to have a job and pay for the phone and we feel that she needs a phone for emergencies, then it is our responsibility as parents to give her the phone and to pay for it. We also had a quick talk about how she should not be worrying about paying for things and how it is our responsibility as parents to make sure she has everything she needs, but not necessarily everything she wants.
This was all 3 days ago on Friday, and today I asked her where she heard about the phone bill. Curse you Hannah Montana!
What started as an innocent question from Becky resulted in a hysterical child crying that she does not want to pay her $3 (all the money she has left now after her shopping spree at the school's book fare) for a phone, and in fact, she does not want the phone, and "mommy please don't make me get the phone and pay money for it".
Of course, a parenting realist that I am, I had to tell Becky that her $3 will not get her far in terms of the cell phone and that we pay almost $100 every month for the 3 cell phones that we have. This number had completely flabbergasted her. Further crying about how she does not want the phone because she does not have the job and does not have money to pay for the phone ensued.
The whole thing ended well enough. A quick explanation that first of all, no child in the first grade needs his or her own phone, second, that when she gets older and has a job and wants the phone we will help her find something cheaper since she will have one phone and not 3 like us, and third, if she older, but not old enough to have a job and pay for the phone and we feel that she needs a phone for emergencies, then it is our responsibility as parents to give her the phone and to pay for it. We also had a quick talk about how she should not be worrying about paying for things and how it is our responsibility as parents to make sure she has everything she needs, but not necessarily everything she wants.
This was all 3 days ago on Friday, and today I asked her where she heard about the phone bill. Curse you Hannah Montana!
