Hey, Cherie!
I'm a girl in high school. I'm a pretty good kid and text a lot. I mean a lot. I bet that there are days when I will send 75 to 100 texts, and I get that many, too. This means I will have months where I have over 5,000 texts on the family phone bill. It doesn't seem like a big deal to me, because our family is on an unlimited plan for phone, data, texting, etc.
Well, obviously it is a big deal to my parents. I don't know where they got the idea that all this texting is a problem, but they got the idea somewhere. We had a big discussion about it yesterday and another one today. They asked to see the texts I was sending. I was so mad that I took them off my phone, which was pretty stupid, because a lot of them are just "K," "OK," "Yeah," "DK," "Later," and stuff like that. There is no sexting, I swear.
I also did some arithmetic. It takes me about two seconds to read a short text and two seconds to respond with something like "OK" or even "K." So, it is not like I am spending all my time texting. My parents play a lot of FarmVille on Facebook and I don't. They also spend much more time on the computer than I ever would texting.
At dinner tonight, my parents announced that they were putting text restrictions on my phone. I would only be allowed to send and receive a maximum of 30 texts a day, which means 900 for the entire month. Fifteen outbound, 15 inbound.
Cherie, this is impossible for me. What can I do?
— Text-barred
Hey, Text-barred!
What can you do⢠There's not all that much you can do until you are paying for your own cellular service and cell phone and choosing your own data plan, which, I have a sneaking suspicion, would not go over well in your house, especially now. For the moment, you are going to have to suck it up. Now, I think the operative effect of all this is you are going to spend more time at your computer -- you can use some services to send free texts from computers to cells, and vice-versa. That won't make your parents very happy, either, but I would guess that's what's coming. Maybe they will be oblivious, maybe not. Maybe you hate my guts for even mentioning these services.
Here is key advice to my readers: Don't let your parents suddenly discover your texting habits. Start the conversation yourself. Go at it affirmatively. Go over your cell plan with them. Let them see your texts. Show them that you're not texting while in school or at work. That is your best hope of being able to text when you want and where you want.
Oh, yeah. It is worth repeating: The answer to texting in cars or at the dinner table is no, no, no.
Hey, Cherie!
I have a question about losing weight. I have been working out like a fiend and trying to eat less, but since the end of school, I have lost exactly one pound and four ounces. I feel like giving up.
— Losing Hope Not Weight
Hey, Losing!
I am not your doctor, and this is something to talk about with your family doctor. But the working-out-like-a-fiend thing worries me a bit, since the more you work out, the more food your body needs and craves. You may be eating more than you think. If you stay focused on eating healthy and keep yourself in good shape, your weight will largely take care of itself.
