The Gentle Pull

Kali wants a cell phone.

Kali doesn’t need a cell phone.

“But I can talk to my friends.”

“You see your friends in school, and then you come home. Anything that wasn’t said in school that can’t wait until the next day can be said on the house phone.”

“Well, what about when I’m not with you?”

“You’re always with me!”

And when she’s not with us, she’s with my parents and they have phones. I don’t see why a nine-year-old needs a cell phone.

Now, my little sister, Bruklyn, lives with us. She’s eleven and has a cell phone. She is always on that damn phone. Always. She texts my mother from the school bus, she texts her friends back home, she chats with her friends back home, all.the.time.

I’m noticing that gentle pull. Kali is on the fringe of this pre-teen behavior, lapping it up like a kitty with cream. They hang out in the bonus room or Kali’s room with the phone on speaker chatting with Brukyn’s friend Abi. They talk about Twilight, they giggle, they talk about Twilight some more.

Kali hasn’t read a single Twilight book, but Bruklyn has read all four. The other day Kali came to me and said, “There’s the funniest video on You Tube. You know when Laurent, Victoria, and James are walking to where the Cullens are playing baseball? Well, someone has them walking to the music, “We are family. I got all my sisters with me!”

First of all, that was too many pop culture references for even my brain to handle.  And secondly, the Cullens? Kali, rightfully, expressed no interest in the books when I devoured them a few months ago. Now, she knows all the characters?

Yesterday, she sat on the couch vigorously punching buttons on Bruklyn’s phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Texting Dina.”

Dina is my other sister.

“About what?”

“Everything.”

Jesus.

I don’t know why this gentle pull towards pre-teen behavior bothers me so much. I mean, I saw it coming. I guess I thought there was time, and now, with my sister here, it’s all moving too fast. The gentle pull has turned into a hearty tug.

When I listen to Bruklyn talk, everything is “weird” and “awkward.” In fact, she uses awkward so much I caught myself quoting The Princess Bride yesterday.

“I don’t think that word means what you think it does.”

Now, with both of their birthdays right around the corner I’m at a loss as to what to get Kali for her birthday. Don’t get it twisted, she’s not getting a cell phone, but I find myself shopping for a child with a whole new mindset than the one she had just months ago. Bruklyn’s cell phone locked up last night and no one could figure out what was wrong with it. It was as if someone died! I’m not ready for that!

And it’s not that Bruklyn is a bad influence (she gets straight A’s and is very outgoing and athletic), she is a typical kid… and that’s the problem. Kids typically get on my nerves.

So, what say you? Cell phones for ten-year-olds? Appropriate? What about a mini laptop with parental controls up the wazoo?