Ooma Update

I wanted to write up a quick update about our Ooma telephone. (To clarify: Ooma is just the brand of phone/provider we purchased. It just happens to be what we call it.)  We have had this home phone since January 2021 and it's still working really well for us. We have two phone extensions and one base. 

Here are some things that I love about the Ooma phone: 

-I feel comfortable leaving Lydia or Austin home for short amounts of time knowing that they can call me if they need to - but that they don't have unsupervised access to a cell phone. 

-My kids know how to call someone and how to answer the phone. 

-My kids love calling the Haderlies and talking to them on the phone. 

The last time I was at my Grandpa Walker's house, I snapped a picture of their home phone. This is an upgrade from the phone from when I was very young, but it's still full of childhood memories. I smile at the cord that attaches the handset to the base, the corkboard with hand-written phone numbers on it, and the notepad to the side with messages saved from decades-old phone calls. 

I know that the Ooma phone is already outdated and that someday my kids will laugh about having a home phone. People may even laugh about having cell phones (are embedded chips in our future? yikes) - but for us right now, we are happy with this household solution we have found. 

Home Phone

We have been planning for quite a while to get a home phone. Shantel in particular has been very set on getting a home phone, not even a cell phone that sits at home. There are lots of reasons we felt this was very important. 

1) We don't think our kids are ready for cell phones (even a cell phone that doesn't belong to them). Even if it just did calling and texting, that is too much for our kids right now. 

2) We want our kids to learn good phone manners. How to answer the phone and be polite. 

3) We want our kids to be able to call their friends and have a number that people can reach them. 

However, we were not willing to spend $30 a month on a phone that may get used once or twice (if at all) during certain months. Fortunately, we found a really good deal. This phone from Ooma costs about $150 to buy the unit, but then you only have to pay taxes and fees, no other monthly phone cost. So we only have to pay about $7 a month. 

We are excited to have the phone and the kids were excited too! We really hope this will be a good thing for them growing up. It is really the first part of teaching them responsibility with phones.