<p>I don’t really care all that much what other people’s arrangements are or were “back in the day” with their parents. My kids have cell phones. I pay for those phones, not so that they can be in contact with other people, but so that they can be in contact with me. Otherwise, they can pay for their own cell phones. </p>
<p>First we get all “horrified” on this board that kids could have something happen to them and nobody would notice, then we decide that parents are being unreasonable expecting to be conctacted within a couple of days. It doesn’t matter what it “used to be like.” It matters only what it is like now. A lot of things “used to be different.” For example, dorms used to have curfews and dorm mothers, too. Who cares?</p>
<p>I don’t care if the kid wanted to go to OWS. I care that he didn’t have the courtesy to contact his parents and let them know he was all right. “I"m fine. Don’t worry.” Not a long text, imho.</p>