DEAR MISS MANNERS: When I was a kid and wanted to play with a friend, I called the friend's house and made plans. Now that I'm a parent with my own kids, and landlines have virtually disappeared, it is almost impossible for my children to make plans without me as an intermediary -- texting/calling their friends' parents on our respective cellphones to set up a time/place.
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My kids are 10 and 14, and many of their friends still do not have cellphones. It feels a little absurd for me to coordinate plans for my 14-year-old, but I don't know how else he can get in touch with his phone-less friends.
Is there something I'm missing? How do other parents do it?
GENTLE READER: If there is no other method of communication for your teenager's phone-less friends (tablet, email, etc.), then coordinate you must. Yes, it may feel absurd, and no doubt it will be highly embarrassing to all teens involved -- but at that age, everything is.
On the upside, it is not the worst thing to know -- and alert other parents -- to what your child is doing. Miss Manners presumes it is the primary reason parents do not let their children have cellular phones in the first place.