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Little Life Lessons

Well, he finally did it!

A few weeks ago, Zak became the official owner of an iphone 3gs. And while that sounds very fancy, it won't sound so by the end of the next paragraph.

First, it doesn't operate as a phone. We have no plans to activate it any time soon to enable it to make or receive calls. Second, we also have no plans to activate any sort of data plan on it any time soon. We have Wi-Fi here at home, but if there's no Wi-Fi, there's no internet. Third, he still has to earn electronic time in order to use it, and like all the rest, he must ask permission first.

So he pretty much has a four year old ipod. He made a deal with his dad that he could buy it for forty dollars. When he finally earned it, we explained to him the above rules. And we pointed out to him that he was already using the phone in this manner. So we made it clear to him that he could save his forty dollars, and still continue to use the phone as he had previously been.

He was adamant however that he wanted to OWN it. We reminded him one more time that it took him quite a while to save up the money, and that was not cheap to simply pay for bragging rights. But he plunked down the crumpled bills in front of his dad with a smile from ear to ear. He had achieved his goal.

"I bought an iphone," he loves to tell EVERYONE. Which makes me cringe and immediately feel the need to list the above stated restrictions. And I have with a few people.

But there, in the background, is that little voice in my head. It tells me to bite my tongue. To just let him share his excitement. Let him be ten. It's no big deal.

And so I'm trying. This post not withstanding.

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