The Texting Queen's Learning Her Lesson

By Jeanne in WA

We just got our cell phone bill for last month and noticed a record usage of over $100 for one of our family's cell phone lines. (The bill usually runs $120 for all four of us.) Turns out my 12-year-old has been texting her friends (at the back of the bus) ad nauseum, with the emphasis on "nausea."

She "forgot" what we warned her when we gave her the phone: Texts would cost her 15 cents each to send or receive. Instead, my Honors student had come to her own conclusion that she'd be charged by the number of characters used.

She's now signed up for quite a bit of yardwork and babysitting to pay off this debt from several hundred quips like "R we hvn fn yet?" Guess she's having fun now!

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