Texting Tips for Parents!

June 22, 2009 by thinkhappy

Can You Text Your Kids?

I am a vey fast keyboarder, and I love to chat on a phone. So, of course, my kids prefer to communicate with me in a way that makes me crazy. They text me. Why do they text me?

Well, for one thing, they are good at using text messaging, and I am not. They also do not have to speak with me, but can just communicate quickly. Maybe they do not want their peers to realize they are communicating with their parents for whatever reason that kids have for things like this. Also, for them, texting is cool - a technology of their generation, and not of mine.

If your kids are texting you, here are some tips for staying in the loop:

• Learn some shortcuts. For instance, you can key in “TL” for Talk Later, or “L8″ for late. When texting, substitutions like “U” for You, will pass as good grammar!
• Does your phone have a “predictive” texting feature? If you have this setting turned on, the software will complete common words for you, and it can save a lot of time.
• You can save templates with common messages. If you are always trying to send a message that asks your kids where they are, when they will be home, or what they want for dinner, save it in a template!
• Take a few minutes to look over the manual that came with your phone. It should teach you how to use your keypad to produce letters and common punctuation.
• A text message is not a college level essay. Don’t sweat proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Just get to the point!

My kid’s friends are actually suprised that I can text, though I would be the first to say that most tenth graders are much better at it than I am. If you really cannot use a phone keypad to text, consider buying one of those new phones that come with a real QWERTY (typewriter) keypad. That should speed you up!

Compliments of Wemonade

Permalink