Communication Plan

I made the mistake of telling my child I would allow him to set the pace for communications once he moved in to the dorm. Maybe for a daughter this is not such a bad suggestion, but for a son it was evidently an open invitation to disown his parents. He could happily go a month without calling me, which should be illegal because it's downright cruel. A better plan would be to set a minimum communications time-frame (once a week at least, please!) and allow them to set the pace outside of that minimum.

Times have changed since the only mode of communication was the telephone. Now parents need to be comfortable with cell phones, texting, email, Twitter updates, Facebook status updates, Skype, and Google Talk, AIM, or Yahoo! Messenger.

If the main method of communication will be email and texting, make sure their cellphone has a good keyboard made for that purpose, so they can type actual sentences instead of using abbreviations that you'll need a dictionary to help you understand. Also, make sure to add a texting plan to their phone line with your mobile phone provider, if you haven't done so already. Believe me, you don't want that shock once that first cell phone bill arrives if you haven't added the texting plan.