Texting Temptation

My children are no different than most.  They love modern technology and they would love to have their own cell phones-not to talk to friends, but to text.  Brendan is 10 and he has a couple of friends (all age 12 or 13) who have phones and love to text.  Friday night he got the phone number of a 12 year old female friend and begged me to allow him to text her on my phone.  I am not in any hurry to encourage this type of communication, but he was so excited about the idea that I let him send her a message.  He started Saturday with a message saying hi and wishing her a Merry Christmas.  She replied "you too".  Later she texted my phone with "hey".  I wasn't at home, so I texted her letting her know that Brendan wasn't around.  She texted back "lol Ok".  The flood gates had only been opened for about 24 hours and I had had enough.  Brendan compulsively asked me if he could see my phone to check for texts and/or to send a text.  The messages usually were only one or two words- nothing exciting.  Tonight at the Nutcracker I let him text her during intermission.  He let her know we were at the Nutcracker.  He could not leave me alone to enjoy the performance because he was so focused on whether he got a text in return.  He even tried to push the buttons on my phone while it was attached to my front pocket.  Immediately after the performance I told him that the texting experiment had failed and that there would be no more of it until further notice.  It is amazing how fast he got caught up in the text craze.  At this time we have a trac phone for the boys to take when we are not together- it does not have texting capabilities.  I know that it is the way many  most young people communicate but to me it is a way to be antisocial and tune out the world around you.  We'll see what the years to come bring- but for now...NO TEXTING!