by Brian
To say our kids are different is an understatement. They are polar opposites in many ways. One way is their preferred communication and their cell phone’s place in it.
Texting
When you text Jolee, you very seldom get an immediate response. You could text, “Hey Jolee, there is a fire in your apartment! You should evacuate immediately!” Her response, 2 days later, would likely be “Ok, thanks.” There are many times that we have had to call Jolee just to let her know that we sent her a text. Dylan on the other hand, definitely prefers texting as his go-to communication forum. If you were to send him a text with an elevator video, he would respond back in 6 seconds flat with details of the make, model, and pitch of the elevator chime. He types on his iPhone faster than anyone I know. It is almost like texting was created especially for him.
Calling
In comparison, you can call Dylan on the phone and there is less than 50% chance he will pick up. When he does actually answer the call, it usually sounds like you either just woke him or you have taken him from a much preferred activity. You get an unenthusiastic response with long delays between thoughts. In fairness, Dylan does have verbal processing difficulties that can make some conversations more difficult than a visual text. On the other hand, Jolee will take your call immediately at nearly any hour of the day. She is both very happy that you called and cannot wait to get off the phone. She answers the phone with a great attitude, almost like she knows what you are going to ask her. In fact, she often replies with “Yeah, yeah I know” and then proceeds to hang up before you have uttered a word. We are not always sure what she knows. This normally prompts a return phone call to determine if she truly can read our minds. Surprisingly, this is actually more humorous than aggravating.
We use these differences to our advantage. Dylan usually gets the complicated instructions and texts that need to be thoughtfully considered and responded to. Jolee gets our urgent calls that we need a quick response. There are many times that we call Jolee to tell Dylan to call us or text Dylan to have Jolee check her texts. In this family, communication has always been a challenging yet interesting adventure.