technology and parents ~ a losing battle

I got a phone call I wasn’t ever expecting to get.

Lindsay : Hello?
Mother : Hey – I got a blackberry.
Lindsay : {silence}
Mother : Hello?
Lindsay : I’m waiting for the punchline?

*sigh*

My mother has a blackberry.

That’s right.

My mother ….. {dramatic pause} has a blackberry.

The fact that she has a cell phone at all is surprising. I think she often forgets that she owns one, based on the amount of times I call it and it’s off.

Apparently when Dad turned 65 and decided to get a cell phone, the nice people at the cell phone company gave him not only his phone…. but also a free blackberry, which he gifted to my mother.

They forgot to include the lessons.

She had a flip phone for ages.

I realize that the majority of people aged 25 and below would not remember this antiquated piece of technology. It had a hinge in the middle and only numbers – everyone depended on either T-9 or developed arthritis in their finger joints from hitting the numbers over and over to get to the letter they wanted….

and heaven forbid you go past the letter you were looking for – then you had to go all the way around again…. frustrating.

I taught my mother how to text on her flip phone. For weeks, I got texts that looked something like this:

heyimheadingtotownwithberniecallyoulaterloveyouxo

disaster

I became skilled in the art of wordsearch.

You would think that a QWERTY board would be easier.

You would be wrong.

Today? After attempting to reach my parents (who, according to them, are always home) on their home phone {no answer}, I called my Mom’s cell phone, only to be greeted with that sugar-sweet voice: {the customer you are trying to reach is not available} Grrrrr…. Dad’s Cell {The customer you are trying to reach… you get the idea} Double Grrrr….

So I left a message. The message that every child has left their parents.

“Why do you have a cell phone if you aren’t going to have it on??”

But I digress.

A few hours later, I receive the following text message:

Call $me later0when you0are free OKV

Seriously. On a full keyboard.

So I asked the obvious question: What the hell is wrong with your typing?

To which I received the reply:

Turrets?maybe LOL

Well, at least she’s figured out lol… that means there’s hope yet.

p.s. I love my mother very much and am very proud of the fact that she can text me…. even though she very rarely remembers to take her phone with her anywhere, and even if she does, she very rarely checks it … love you mom