Dylan’s wife has a strict no cell phone policy for her kids at school and locks them away each day while they are in class. To prove her point, she has now taken to locking up her own phone and his as well. But Dylan is an adult and feels like if he wants to use his phone during the day he should be able to whenever he wants. Should Dylan just accept that his wife locks up his cell phone? Or should he take a stand and get his Candy Crush back?
Ayla Brown: And good morning to Dylan. I don’t know how you’re calling me right now. Must not be from a cell phone. Hi. Good morning. What is the trouble with the whole cell phone thing in your home?
Dylan: So my both my kids are middle schoolers, and my wife is a superintendent that works in the school that they attend. And there’s a big issue right now with kids cell phone usage and being distracted and everything like that. So what my wife has done preemptively is basically takes the kids phones from them.
Ayla Brown: Just your kids or all kids in the school?
Dylan: No, no, just our kids.
Ayla Brown: Okay.
Dylan: So lead by example and she locks their phones away. The problem is, though, the kids have ratted on me, and they are like, well, Dad gets to use his phone. And basically now she has locked my phone away as an example for the kids.
Ayla Brown: Just so the kids aren’t like, well Dad gets to play Candy Crush. Why can’t we? And now if you just take all temptation, all cell phones off the table, then no one’s playing Candy Crush. What a great example that is, right?
Dylan: It sounds great. In theory, it sounds great. The thing is I’m a grown-ass man. I don’t need to have rules. Like, if they’re bad and they don’t eat their food and then they’ll not get ice cream. Do I have to eat all my vegetables? Does it make any sense? But I went with it. I went with it, you know, because we have to be together. Okay.
Ayla Brown: Oh, you’re a good man, Dylan.
Dylan: And it’s rough. The other day I actually read a book. Analog entertainment. I read a book, you know, with actual physical pages that you can flip. I don’t what’s next, go read newspapers and, I don’t know.
Ayla Brown: I’ll tell you what’s next. You’re going to get a library card. You’re going to go and check out books like the good old days, right?
Dylan: Oh, man. I think I still know how to find a book using the Dewey Decimal System.
Ayla Brown: Oh, throwback. I love it. So, what do you. It’s quite extreme in many ways. I mean, you reading a book is extreme, but also just your wife locking up the cell phones of all of you guys. I mean, how do you communicate with each other? Are there other phones?
Dylan: I work from home and she works at the school, obviously. And so we I have a home land line open. And she has a school phone so we could contact each other in case of emergencies. So there’s no issue there.
Ayla Brown: All right. So what is the issue? What do you want me to ask our listeners? Because I’m about to put the phone number out and I would love for you to ask your question.
Dylan: My thing is, if trying to set an example for your kids, what is too extreme? I understand the locking of the phones because, you know, they’re kids and they’re going to get distracted and stuff. But why do I have to suffer?
Ayla Brown: Because as you said, quote, I’m a grown ass man.
Dylan: Yes, I would stand by that. Why do I have to suffer for it? You know, I understand making a point, but this is kind of getting a little bit ridiculous.
