Monday, May 14, 2018

Knowing when to text them

When I was a freshman in college, I waited a full month before I asked my Mom if I could come home for a visit. It felt like forever. We talked a bunch that first month over the phone, but she never asked me if I wanted to come home. Was that hard for her?

If texting had been around then, I wonder if I would have asked to come home after a month. Would a few texts from my Mom made me feel better about being lonely at college? I don't know, but there is some recent research to indicate that first-time college students rely on that text connection to home.

My son doesn't have a phone yet (despite all his requests) but he likes the idea of being able to text people. He thinks it is fun to send messages on my phone to his Nana (which she loves) and he can't wait to have his own phone. I ask him sometimes if he would text me and he tells me that he would text me all the time (which is the right answer, but he still can't have a phone yet.)

I wonder what kind of future connection my son would want with me when he eventually leaves the house. Would he still lean on me for support on the hard days? Would he get annoyed when I check in on him? It's hard to tell at this point, but it is something I want to talk to him about as he gets older.

How often do you text your teen? Tell me in the comments.

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