It’s almost impossible to imagine the days when people had to find a land line to make a call. Plans change so quickly and families are so frequently going in such different directions that having a mobile phone to stay connected seems virtually mandatory for anyone over the age of 10.

Okay, maybe that age is flexible, and it undoubtedly depends on where you live and what your family’s up to. For most teens and adults, though, leaving home without a cell phone is as unthinkable as leaving home without a shirt; it just doesn’t happen.

But the way that teens and adults use cell phones is about as similar as a tank top and an Oxford. The general rule of thumb (no pun intended) is that teens text and adults talk.

Of course, that’s not always true, and many adults text, too. From a percentage standpoint, though, I would unscientifically guess that teens text 90% of the time, and adults talk 90% of the time. In fact, one headline this week said the average number of texts per month from teens is 2,272, compared with an average of 203 phone calls for teens during the same period. Woe to the parent who doesn’t get the unlimited text plan option added to their family cell phone plan from day one.

As the mother of a soon-to-be teen who’s already mad about texting, I’ve realized that I’d better jump on the texting bandwagon if I want to connect with my kids. If I call, I often don’t get an answer. If I text, a response shoots right back. Along the lines of “if you can’t beat them, join them,” I need to get with the texting program.

The other day, my son even relayed a conversation he and his friends had at school about which of their moms knows how to text. About half the kids in the conversation said their moms didn’t know how to text, and the rest said their moms didn’t like to text. The kids just laughed and rolled their eyes.

Clearly, I need to get a texting phone and start texting if I want to communicate easily with my kids and not seem hopelessly old-fashioned and out-of-date. Otherwise, I might as well get an ink quill and be done with it.

In the meantime, though, thank goodness for texting via my Cozi family calendar. In fact, the only texts my son currently gets from me are from Cozi. I don’t even need a texting phone: I can type a message on the keyboard and hit “send to phone.” “Send to phone,” of course, means send via text. By sending a message through my Cozi online family organizer, I know he’ll get it.

Even when I do get a good texting phone, I’ll still use my family organizer to send schedule information and reminders to my kids. It’s a great way to communicate quickly and easily, and communication from Cozi is one way he can’t talk back! LOL.