Teach your daughter to memorize your phone number

With modern cellphones, calling someone can be as simple as asking the phone to dial it or touching their profile picture.  More often than not, we exchange phone numbers by dialing each other once and then adding their name to the directory in our smart phones. Long gone are the days of vanity phone numbers and nobody really remembers cell phone numbers anymore.

Now, imagine an awful scenario where your daughter is separated from you and lost in the mall. There’s no way for her to get a hold of you and chances are, she is too young for you to have given her a phone anyway. While you may be frantically looking for her, she simply doesn’t know how to get a hold of you. Even if a Good Samaritan tries to help and offer to call you with their cellphone, your daughter would simply be at a loss as familiar pictures and names would not be on a stranger’s smartphone. And teach your daughter your full names, too. When the police asks, you don’t want your daughter to say your name is ‘daddy’.

Even if a Good Samaritan tries to help and offer to call you with their cellphone, your daughter would simply be at a loss as familiar pictures and names would not be on a stranger’s smartphone. And teach your daughter your full names, too. When the police asks, you don’t want your daughter to say your name is ‘daddy’.

A long time ago, I taught my daughter to memorize mine and her mom’s cell phone number by heart. It took a few days for it to sink in and even now, I occasionally quiz her on our numbers. Randomly, I would let her use a keypad to dial through and allow it to ring so she is familiar with manually and physically keying in the phone numbers and connecting. If she’s comfortably enough to do this, she can practically call any phone number she remembers from any phone on the planet. Even the traditional dial-0-for-an-operator is becoming increasingly difficult in a time of automation, so understanding 911 (or the local emergency number since 911 is not universal) and what it means to invoke these services is a very powerful survival skill for a 6 year old.

My daughter has no difficulty in navigating my phone or calling up YouTube videos as she takes to technology as if it were cotton candy. But in the absence of conveniences, I don’t want her to be confused and helpless if she sees a rotary phone. (We tried that too!) Knowing that she remembers important details off by heart and knowing she can use that information in multiple ways is exactly how you’re going to help her help herself. And this will bring her peace. (And you, too.)