@tinamiller614 I find our relationship evolving as she matures and although I miss chatting away mindlessly on the celly with her, she and I have a great time really catching up on her breaks when she regales me with all of her PG rated adventures ;). I do recall once towards the beginning, as she began weaning away from our daily calls, when I asked why I hadn’t heard from her, she said oh, you know mom, our convos take 2+ hours so I wanted to be sure and only call you when I have that anount of time to talk haha. And so the tapering, organically began
Great that she’s already making connections with people at her U and cut back on the conversations on her own. Texts are a great, non-intrusive way to stay connected. Sounds like she’s doing a great job of balancing things at her new place! Congrats to both of you!
“You know, the ability to talk on the phone while walking from place to place (without it being prohibitively expensive) is a real game-changer. My view is that a lot of kids today essentially view themselves as still being “present” with their extended family because they can connect so easily.”
I think this is very true. It’s changed walking-time from “time to gather one’s thoughts” to “time to check in with others via phone.” It makes a phone call less of an Event, the way it was when it was scheduled for Sunday evening when the rates were low.
@Pizzagirl your post reminded me of how, in ancient times, we used to have those old telephone tables from the 70’s. I showed my milennial a picture of me at about age 10 posing at a phone table with a rotary phone in hand and I told her, now he’s an artifact showing how we used to have to sit down to talk whilst we watched Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom :))
LOL I agree somewhat but even when not talking to me, she has told me she spent her time trying to figure out where she was going since she ultimately gets lost. She’s somewhat directionally challenged like myself.
If she leaves enough time for it, getting lost can be a way of exploring her U and the area around where she lives. Sometimes folks meet very nice new friends by being “lost.” 
I remember some college survey indicated that when kids are walking around campus, if they’re texting, they’re mostly texting friends…but if they’re talking on the phone, they’re talking to their parents.
I guess a lot of “phone home” calls take place while walking around campus.
“our post reminded me of how, in ancient times, we used to have those old telephone tables from the 70’s. I showed my milennial a picture of me at about age 10 posing at a phone table with a rotary phone in hand and I told her, now he’s an artifact showing how we used to have to sit down to talk whilst we watched Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom”
My parents got a 1-800 number during the time that I was in college, so I could call that way. That was a major deal!! And living in a sorority house, we didn’t have private lines, we just had a bank of pay phones in the back hallway. So you could break up with your boyfriend, tell your parents about your grades, or get the latest news from your gynecologist in public view. I got my first job offer while standing at a payphone, shushing the people around me so that I’d sound professional to my new boss!
Even answering machines were a big deal to have! What did you do if you called someone and they weren’t there? You missed them.
When I was in college, I got a Sprint account and bought a little tone dialer that you held up to the rotary phone to connect with Sprint. That’s some old technology now!
My first thought was that it’s very sweet. Sort of like the toddler who suddenly reaches up to grab your hand after s/he realizes s/he had lost sight of you for a bit. I’m sure…and I’m late reading