MARK MY WORD: CHILDREN DIAL UP FUN, TOY AROUND WITH PHONES

When did telephones become toys?

My wife, Joni, bought a flip phone the other day, bringing to five the number of phones in our home.

Four of the five are in use. The other, a Garfield phone, is currently stored away. But it too might find a new home some day.

Our children love our three cordless phones, particularly the flip phone.

Anything that can be flipped makes for an interesting toy.

Two-year-old Bailey loves to pretend to talk on the phone. So does Becca, who just turned 6.

I have to watch out when Bailey is on the phone. You never know what numbers she might dial.

I continually hope that neither of them will dial a 900 number.

It's not just our children who are into telephones. A girlfriend of Becca's regularly calls to chat.

It just amazes me. I didn't think the telephone addiction started until the teen-age years.

When I was growing up, I viewed the phone as something to be talked on only when necessary.

It was much easier to ride my bike around the neighborhood in search of a conversation than to dial up someone on the single rotary phone in our home.

Our phone wasn't a toy. You couldn't imagine Barbie talking on the phone.

It was one of those old black telephones, permanently anchored by a thick phone cord. It sat on the living room desk.

I viewed it more as a piece of furniture than a communications device.

There was no touch-tone dialing, call waiting or redial function on that phone.

We didn't have an answering machine either so we had to take messages down the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper, or file them away in our memory banks.

Becca has taken to answering the phone. She often doesn't get it straight as to who is on the phone. But at least she doesn't disconnect them.

Our flip phone is getting more attention than a bevy of Barbies. Bailey likes to run around the house, holding the flip phone to her ear.

Becca likes to perch atop the back of the couch, holding forth with a lengthy, imaginary conversation while trying to fend off Bailey's efforts to grab the phone.

Pretty soon, I may have to put our phones under lock and key.

I can't imagine what it will be like when they become teen-agers. At that point, we may have phones in every room and our children may just turn into human flip phones.

With the flip phone, you're never out of touch -- even when you're celebrating your daughter's sixth birthday at that pizza-and-games place that has the big mouse.

Becca celebrated her sixth birthday last week with about a dozen of her closest friends. They mobbed the mouse. I expected a riot to break out. Fortunately, order was restored and the party worked out fine.

There's nothing like birthday cake and a ton of tokens to keep a party hopping.

Both Becca and Bailey had a good time without even talking on the phone.

But by the next day, they were ready for some more telephone talk.

At this rate, our home could soon be one big, busy signal. Call waiting could take on a whole new meaning.

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.