Over dinner, Colby was talking about wanting an iPhone. He wanted to know if he could get one when he was older, how much they cost, and how long it would take to save up that much.

I explained to him how the phone itself has a price, and then you have to pay a fee every month to be able to use it. In our case, it's about $120. Having recently received about $100 in birthday money from various donors, he had a rough idea of how much that was. He gets $20/month in allowance, so he quickly realized that he'd need a big raise before signing up for an iPhone.

Later in the evening, he said to me, "Mama, your iPhone must be really special to you."

Not sure I wanted to hear the answer, I asked, "Why?"

"Because you have to pay for it. I mean, you pay more than $10 for it! That's like... a lot!"


I was just glad he didn't say, "Because you use it ALL THE TIME."