I gave O his first phone, which was my last feature phone, yesterday. He had started bugging me for a phone since the start of this school year (“Middle School”), and I had challenged him on why he needed one. He couldn’t really come up with a good, or valid reason, except one, which was that he might need to call me in case of emergencies, even though I struggled to imagine a scenario where he needs to call me given I drop him off and pick him up from school every day. Nonetheless, I promised him that if I find my old feature phone, I will let him use it, purely for calling purposes.

I found it several months ago, but never got around to charging it up and buying a SIM card, because it seemed like a of hassle for a theoretical / remote use case. Mostly I think O just wanted to call his friends to chat, or feel like he is part of the ‘phone’ crew, which I suppose gives him a greater sense of independence and identity?

But yesterday, I was meant to pick him up from school (17:40) after he went for a school outing to watch Matilda. I changed my mind and decided to meet him directly at the theatre instead (17:15). But the play had ended early, so he was already back at school by the time I got to the theatre (16:55), and I couldn’t see him when I got to school. Because he didn’t know where I was, his friendLouis L offered to bring him home to his to wait for me. He called his mum to ask if that was okay, and she said she would call me to confirm, and that’s how I found out where he was.

So after that happened, I was like – Okay, he needs a phone. There is clearly a use case for this. So I immediately went to a nearby EE shop to get a SIM card, charged up the phone and installed the SIM. It had been ages since I used it, that I had to look up to user manual to see how to install the SIM. And it was such a walk down memory lane to use the teeny tiny keys, with the multi-press keys to type.

My baby is growing up so fast… he’s now a pre-teen with a phone. :O