The Circle of Life.

We all have a weakness...things that we just are not very good at...things that frustrate us, aggravate us, something we always fail at. Mine for example is sewing, I can't sew, it frustrates me, aggravates me, and I seem to fail at it anytime I try. I live in the state of Utah where sewing seems to be an inbred genetic that everyone can do, somehow that gene skipped me.

My mother has a weakness....technology. So I want share the experience of my mother getting a new cell phone. My mother and I have gone the rounds on such things as computers and her satellite dish, we snap at each other, we tease at each other, and somehow whatever issue she has we figure out either from long distance or we fix whatever the issue is when we go up to Idaho to visit.

So at Christmas time we told her it was time for her to get a new cell phone, the one she has is very outdated for what she was paying for. It would go to roaming as soon as she left her county in Idaho. She does not need anything elaborate...a phone that does not change to roaming once she leaves Nampa, a phone that she can do basic texting and receving of texts from family. For example, my sister and I exchange photos through text and we would like to include mom in these pictures and daily updates on our lives since we all live in different states.

Yesterday my mom informs me that she is getting a new phone finally and asks for advise on getting one. So over the phone the first thing I tell her is not to go to a Verizon dealer, you get better prices through places such as Wal-mart. The dealer will try to sell you everything under the sun, "DO NOT GO TO THE DEALER"! I tell her to shop around to see what phone is going to fit her needs. We talked some more and we hung up and my first thought was....she is going to go to the dealer.

You see I have a theory that the older we get we begin to regress. My mother is in her regression "Teenager" stage. We start in diapers and someone feeding us and we end our life in diapers and someone feeding us. So I am thinking my mother is in her 60's so I will call this her late teens stage. I lecture her on what she should be doing because "I know best" and she goes and does the opposite...just like a teenager. Somewhere along the lines parents become children and children become parents.

So anyways I call her this morning and ask, "So did you find a phone?" .....she snorts out of frustration and says..yes....after going to one place that didn't have what she was looking for she headed straight to the Verizon deal. "MOM"! I exclaim,"I told you not to do that"! Immediately my next question was how much crap did you buy and how much did you spend"? My mother recalled her experience and the pushy salesman and all the unnecessary accessories that she purchased. So like a parent I ask, "Are you going to listen to me next time"? She says yes but I know she won't because that is what "teens" do.

So the conversation ends with her wondering why her phone won't stay on. I ask, "Did you charge it"? They didn't give me a charger only the car charger she purchased ....."Look in the box the phone came in", I tell her....."Oh, there it is, I have to charge it"?..."Yes, mother charge the phone".

We ended the conversation with me banging my head on the table. So I invision my future, me talking to my children when I am in my 60's, and them lecturing me about whatever current technology I don't understand, and them telling me what I should be doing, and because I will be in my "teen" stage......... I won't listen.