Totally get it . So did I . And my dad lives in a very different country time zone than me . I ' m sure he would be fine without it . And his sister definitely isn ' t getting one as she ' s only 5 . But he ' s also getting to the age where he doesn ' t really want to talk to his old mom anymore . I read somewhere that if you don ' t make eye contact with teen boys they ' re more likely to open up makes them sound like a magical creature . I ' ve tried this while driving . He ' s sitting behind or next to me and he talks way more than when we ' re across the dinner table . But his sister is always there and I think he ' s very aware of that . Maybe if he ' s texting he ' ll be even more comfortable ? Although that could be a double edged sword . If he ' s comfortable texting me , he could get too comfortable with text and get comfortable with the wrong people . But we have these tools at our disposal now . I ' m hoping that if I do my research we can use it for good . That it will be a help rather than a hindrance .