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Call me stupid, but I just received an irksome revelation: If my D uses a phone card to place long distance calls from her dorm room, she may have to dial more than 30 digits before reaching home! This would entail dialing a 9 to get an outside line, then her campus phone pin no.(which is 7 digits), then the 1-800 no. for the calling card, then that pin no., then the 11 digit long distance number of the party she wishes to reach. I am flabberghasted. There has got to be an easier way!

She could certainly just use the phone service with which the school has a contractual agreement, but that would still entail dialing 19 numbers. What an incredible disincentive to call home!

H has suggested that we perhaps change cell phone plans to a nation wide family plan with a preset "bucket of minutes", but I recently found out that cell phone reception is dicey at best within the stone dormatories on campus. Nevertheless, most students do indeed carry cells to use when not in their rooms, and put up with the pain-in-the-tush that is land line calling from their rooms.

So it looks like AIM and IM are our best, most hassel-free distance communications options (not to mention, they're FREE!), however hit-or-miss they tend to be. The last option is for D to e-mail us with a specific time when she will commit to be in her room, so that we can call her from home. That, of course, still has loads of potential for missed calls...sigh...

So what's the call-home strategy for you and your college kid? Is it this complicated everywhere?

By Thumper1 (Thumper1) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 02:13 pm: Edit

DS has a cell phone. He does not even have a land line in his room. Few kids do at his school (you have to contract with the local phone company for this...it is not provided by the school). We pay for the cell phone on the condition that he calls home once a week at his convenience. He has a prepaid phone card to use in a pay phone if he so desires.

By Bern700 (Bern700) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 02:17 pm: Edit

well I'm just using a cell phone to talk to my parents. Also I know someone who bought two really nice webcams so that he could talk to his parents over them. They are freaking nice. The image is clear in real time (no delay), the sound quality is excellent, and that way he can see and talk to his parents. You can use them through MSN messanger or AIM. Maybe that could be another option. All you do is log on and that's it, you are talking to your kid and you get to see her.

By Demingy (Demingy) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 02:37 pm: Edit

Since you mentioned AIM maybe you guys would be able to call her at a time when you *know* that she will be there once you guys start to chat back and forth.

By Rhonda63 (Rhonda63) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 02:44 pm: Edit

My D has a room phone (line is provided by the school) but really uses her cellphone more. She has nationwide LD, w/300 free minutes plus free nights (after 9 pm) and weekends. I think she's only gone over the 300 min once, by about 5 min. If she wants to call a friend from HS to talk for longer, she just does it after 9 pm (the middle of the day for college students, lol) or on Sat/Sun.

I generally call her, maybe 1-2 times a week, on her cellphone. I used to call on the room phone, but woke up her roommate a couple of times. I don't think she or the roommate really used the room phone. If your kid's college charges for a room phone, I would advise against getting one -- just use the cell.

I did not IM her. I don't do IM, and it just didn't seem like a good idea for us. I do e-mail, though, and she (usually) responds.

I think it may be hard for your D to have to tell you when she'll be around, and then make sure she is there (things do come up). That seems like too much planning for me, lol!

I should say that my D was terrible about calling us. But I called a couple of times a week anyway, and she was generally happy to talk to me -- if it was a bad time, she just said so and called back later.

By Sc_Dad (Sc_Dad) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 04:21 pm: Edit

Simple solution is to use a phone with speed dialing. Program your calling card information and all she has to do is insert the appropriate telephone number at the end.

I did this while working from home in a "virtual office" and despised using the company cell phone due to poor reception. This way, I used a quality landline connection w/o being charged on the home phone service.

By Poetsheart (Poetsheart) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 05:30 pm: Edit

"Since you mentioned AIM maybe you guys would be able to call her at a time when you *know* that she will be there once you guys start to chat back and forth."

Demingy---LOL!---That was a real DUH! moment, was'nt it? I only thought about this AFTER I logged off and started running errands.

Sc Dad, what a great idea! Thank goodness for speed dail! This whole thing may not prove so exasperating afterall.

Bern, that web cam idea is intriguing. I've heard about long distance over the web, but I really have no idea how it works (Technologically Challenged should be my middle name). I assume you need some kind of software to do this. I'd heard that it had problems with dependability and call clarity in the past. Sounds like they've improved the process by quite a bit. Can anyone explain the internet phone call process to me (use elementary terms understandable by a decided non-techie---LOL!).

Thanks everybody. You've been a big help!

Poetsheart (AKA, Valpal)