It’s likely that your mom talked to her friends on either a cordless phone or at the end of a curly-corded device that stretched into other rooms if she was lucky. She would laugh and shout above the din of your household mayhem. You were always amazed by how she could seem so cheerful talking to her friends when moments ago she was glaring at you for using your shirt as a napkin.
Today, the momversation by phone is usually a text transaction. It’s usually short, it won’t cause your phone to ring in the middle of a workday, it doesn’t require listening to a voicemail. The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that many people with cell phones prefer texting over a phone call – not simply Millennials. Indeed, sending a voicemail is 2004’s telegram equivalent. It’s passe and most of us consider listening to voicemails a chore akin to scheduling a dentist appointment. We would rather receive a text message that can be easily answered while standing in an elevator. But sometimes you just want to hear the voice of a friend.
Enter Voxer, the walkie-talkie of the new millennium. With this app you can send texts, photos, videos, or audio messages (up to 15 minutes in length) for friends that can be easily listened to and responded to within the app, which works for both iPhone and Android. That brings us to reason #1 Voxer is great for mama friendships:
1 | Sometimes it’s just good to hear your friends’ voices
There is nothing finer than hearing that signature cackle of your roommate from sophomore year of college piped into your ear in the middle of the day, just because. A vox from a friend is an oasis in a desert of oftentimes banal conversation. Being with our kids all day or even for a portion of the day can make us feel like our social skills are atrophying. We start dropping articles or telling some rando in the dog food aisle that you think his Paw Patrol band-aid is cool and can you buy those here?
2 | It works on your time and availability
If your offspring are still in a napping phase, you know it’s hard to give up the blessed quiet for a phone conversation. Further, with the predictably unpredictable schedules and temperaments kids maintain, it’s hard to book a proper phone date with a dear friend to catch up. Voxer is your anytime solution for the conversations you can’t schedule. Group chats are the best because there is no pressure to respond. Friends chime in with stories and questions throughout the day, but unlike a text message or voicemail, a Voxer message does not beg for an immediate response. You can read the texts en route to a meeting and you can listen to your single friend regale you with her latest Tinder date while you are painting your nails later that evening. Further, it works for all the PTO committees for which you regret volunteering. Who needs 72 emails about the 3rd grade bake sale when you can Voxer it up, no typing hands required.
3 | No one interrupts anyone
For those of us who often occupy the Listener role among friends, Voxer offers us our moment to shine. You don’t have to wait for your turn at the lunch table to speak – huzzah! You don’t have to worry about being interrupted or feeling as though you need to rush your story. Just press the walkie-talkie button and presto! The stage is yours. (And should your story run long for weary ears, the app allows you to increase the audio listening speed up to four times as fast.)
Everyone’s a winner! This little app has already revolutionized my female friendships, uniting us across time zones and even hemispheres, weaving the loose threads of our days together, and allowing us to keep laughing together like old times. Of course, Voxer’s appeal is not restricted to friendship. I’ve even heard of organizations using it as an efficient way for employees to manage projects.
Do you vox? Are you sold? Leave me a vox and let me know.
It is clear to me now, two kids and two different experiences later: our babies are born ready. All they need is for us to be ready to listen, and respond.
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It’s likely that your mom talked to her friends on either a cordless phone or at the end of a curly-corded device that stretched into other rooms if she was lucky. She would laugh and shout above the din of your household mayhem. You were always amazed by how she could seem so cheerful talking to her friends when moments ago she was glaring at you for using your shirt as a napkin.
Today, the momversation by phone is usually a text transaction. It’s usually short, it won’t cause your phone to ring in the middle of a workday, it doesn’t require listening to a voicemail. The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that many people with cell phones prefer texting over a phone call – not simply Millennials. Indeed, sending a voicemail is 2004’s telegram equivalent. It’s passe and most of us consider listening to voicemails a chore akin to scheduling a dentist appointment. We would rather receive a text message that can be easily answered while standing in an elevator. But sometimes you just want to hear the voice of a friend.
Enter Voxer, the walkie-talkie of the new millennium. With this app you can send texts, photos, videos, or audio messages (up to 15 minutes in length) for friends that can be easily listened to and responded to within the app, which works for both iPhone and Android. That brings us to reason #1 Voxer is great for mama friendships:
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