Too young for a cell phone?

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Heard a "live read" commercial this morning and the DJ was talking about giving your 6 year old a cell phone because of all of the activities that little squirts have. AT&T has parental controls so your little one can't access inappropriate material on their phones while they are waiting to be picked up from practice, school etc...
I know that I have been treated as a babysitter while coaching various youth sports. Are cell phones the new babysitter for some parents?

How old is the youngest member of your family with a cell phone?

My youngest got hers at 11. She is only allowed to call family members with it(mom and dad, she doesn't like to talk to her sister even when we are eating dinner) and use it for emergencies. She is allowed to text friends to make plans and we make her put it away at 6pm unless she has an activity.

 

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With my son and now my daughter we had a cell phone for their use starting around 10. My daughter puts it in her bat bag or sleep over bag and leaves it turned off. It is there for her to use if she NEEDS it.

I gave my son a cell phone for his general use when he was in 8th grade. He had a low amount of texting of it. I upped the numbers as he was responsible with it and even though he has unlimited on it now I have an imposed limit that he can't go over.

 

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Son got his when he entered high school, daughter when she entered jr. high. Sounds like a double standard (just ask the boy!) but mom was more concerned about keeping in touch with daughter when she was at practices etc.

I used to think I knew what was the line for such things but it seems to change with the circumstance.

 

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DD got a cell phone at 11. Unlimited text and calling mom and dad only (expense thing). She sleeps with the darn thing. To us a cell phone is a way of communicating, expressing thoughts, ideas & feelings. Requires brain use. Don't see anything bad in that. Would rather she be communicating with someone than staring at the boob tube in a mindless trance.

 

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Son got his when he entered high school, daughter when she entered jr. high. Sounds like a double standard (just ask the boy!) but mom was more concerned about keeping in touch with daughter when she was at practices etc.

I used to think I knew what was the line for such things but it seems to change with the circumstance.

Agreed. You can't have a hard rule because not every kid is involved with the same things, etc.

I'd say generally jr high is when I'll start to consider my daughter having her own for personal use, with limited minutes, etc.

 

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Times are changing, my oldest got her first phone in 7th grade, they didn't have restrictions you could put on, I told her the allowed minutes and Texts, she kept tracked and never went over during her first 2 year contract, she was the first kid in her class to get one, then it became a dominos effect, I got plenty of sarcastic thanks a lot from other parents. That was 5 years ago, now same community most 5th graders have one and a few 4th graders. I'm going to let my 3rd grader get one next year if she meets a pre set of responsiblty obligations beforehand. My niece got her phone @ 6 years old. I love it when she texts me some exciting news in her life that normally I wouldn't head about until a week or so later.

 

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My youngest will be getting one on her 11th birthday. My oldest received hers when she was 12, but it was at Christmas time, which is 2 months before her 13th birthday. Both girls have to have at least a 3.2 GPA, and must pay thier bill unless they get a 3.8. Both girls will not be allowed to have their phones until after 7 pm so they can concentrate on thier homework.

 

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Remember, someone once asked "too young for a record player?" "too young for a radio?".

 

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why would you drop off a 6 year old and come back to pick her up?

 

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Wow......I must be the biggest hold out on this ......my 13 yr. old is still arguing with me that she needs one. I keep saying no.....you dont need it. The other 2 got theirs at 16 and 18 when they started driving.

 

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why would you drop off a 6 year old and come back to pick her up?

That was the part of the commercial that got me. As is being dicussed heavily in the "top story" I am not comfortable enough to leave my 14 yr old at her practices.

FYI- the average 6th grader has a better phone than me

 

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While I am conscious of social pressure I am also more conscious that I am the parent. If allowed my son would be reaching for the phone every few seconds to text. He told me once that his friend was over 10,000 monthly texts. Here is some math:

Assume a 31 day month like May. 10 Sat/Sundays, 21 others.
30 minutes before each school day = 10.5 hrs
7.5 hrs between 2:30pm until bed, say 10pm = 157.5 hrs
Weekends are 15 hrs per day = 150 hrs

Total hrs = 318 hrs
In Minutes = 19,080 minutes

10,000 texts / 19,080 minutes = .52 texts per minute

Roughly 1 text every two minutes.

Remove time for eating and when they aren't texting and the time between texts was reduced. I hope his parents are aware.

 

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Softballmom, we were also one of the big holdouts. I saw no need for my daughter to have a cell phone in elementary school. She wasn't going to be anywhere without us or another adult who had a cell phone. For us at least, at this age it was more a matter of "I want a cell phone because everybody else has one." She didn't get a cell phone until the end of her 8th grade year and only after getting straight As. We started slowly with the texting also. She was only allowed 200 minutes of month and if she went over she had to pay the difference. It was good for her to be able to show us she was responsible. It was considered a risky move at the time because almost every parent we talked to told us to get unlimited text messaging because their daughters went over the alloted minutes and got stuck with a huge phone bill.

Now that my daughter is older, I am glad she has a cell phone because she is out more with friends, so I want to be able to get a hold of her if I have to. It also comes in handy during summer travel ball. I, however, believe that cell phones are creating a generation of rude people and are distancing parents from their children's lives. Back in the day, parents were probably more aware of who their kids were socializing with, at least during after school hours. Now with the advent of cell phones and texting, parents are left in the dark. One of daughter's friends doesn't even know our home phone #, she only knows my daughter's cell phone #. Back in the day, if you wanted to talk to a friend, you usually had to go through your friend's parents first because most of the time they were the ones answering the phone. Now with the advent of texting, the internet, and facebook, your kids can communicate with loads of people you're not even aware of.

 

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WM_83. Your breakdown on the minutes cracked me up, because I did the same calculations one time on a kid's texting which I think was around 19,000 minutes. After doing the math, I figured that she had to be texting every minute of the day. I didn't see how that was possible until somebody suggested that the person was probably texting during school hours. I'm glad that I'm able to get online and see the phone numbers and times of my daughter's text messages. One time I had to get my daughter out of school at a time when some students weren't in their classrooms. One of the teachers suggested I text my daughter. I told her it wasn't going to do any good because she turns her cell phone off. She was genuinely shocked by that. I tried anyway and wasn't able to get a hold of her which was frustrating, but made me feel good that she was following the rules. It sure is tempting however to text her when I have to tell her something before school lets out. I have to keep in mind that I survived high school without a cell phone with texting capabilities.

 

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youngest dd is 3mos shy of 16 yrs old and still doesn't have a cell-- she's homeschooled and we take her to ball practice,dad stays till over,we never leave her at a game unattended, so she really doesn't NEED one. of course she WANTS one - when she takes a walk,goes to the mall, anywhere with friends, she takes my phone for emergencies-I let her text from mine sometimes -thats just the way we do it

 

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That was the part of the commercial that got me. As is being dicussed heavily in the "top story" I am not comfortable enough to leave my 14 yr old at her practices.

FYI- the average 6th grader has a better phone than me

I look forward to leaving mine. LOL

 

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While I am conscious of social pressure I am also more conscious that I am the parent. If allowed my son would be reaching for the phone every few seconds to text. He told me once that his friend was over 10,000 monthly texts. Here is some math:

Assume a 31 day month like May. 10 Sat/Sundays, 21 others.
30 minutes before each school day = 10.5 hrs
7.5 hrs between 2:30pm until bed, say 10pm = 157.5 hrs
Weekends are 15 hrs per day = 150 hrs

Total hrs = 318 hrs
In Minutes = 19,080 minutes

10,000 texts / 19,080 minutes = .52 texts per minute

Roughly 1 text every two minutes.

Remove time for eating and when they aren't texting and the time between texts was reduced. I hope his parents are aware.

He can probably do at least 15 texts per minute. 10,000 texts would only take them 667 minutes or 11 hours. In a 318 hour time span that leaves 307 minutes for him to pick his nose. LOL

 

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Leaving a six yr old at practice that is crazy! I see no need. My oldest got hers in 7th grade when I got tired of going to the school and sitting and waiting and waiting for track to end. I run a home daycare and pick up times are also end of practice time. I can't be in two places at once so I reply on coaches to stay on the schedule they gave me not what they announced during the day at school. She was able to call me afterschool to give me the new time. She did have texting until the end of 8th grade. My son is 12 he got his for Christmas this year(he will be in 7th in the fall-partially did it based on plan renewal otherwise it prob would have been in thesummer. He has a couple friends who only have cells so sometimes it is hard to get ahold of someone when he is there. Our youngest is 8 and has no need so it will be a while....

 

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Wow......I must be the biggest hold out on this ......my 13 yr. old is still arguing with me that she needs one. I keep saying no.....you dont need it. The other 2 got theirs at 16 and 18 when they started driving.

He can probably do at least 15 texts per minute. 10,000 texts would only take them 667 minutes or 11 hours. In a 318 hour time span that leaves 307 minutes for him to pick his nose. LOL

Lol! Too funny musty!:lmao:

 

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For those of you that never have to leave your child anywhere, let me say you are very blessed, or you must only have one child with one activity and don't have to work or are fortunate to only work when they are in school. Not everyone has that option. I have four children, and work full time night shift and have my children involved in as much as we are able as I feel it will hopefully keep them out of trouble in the future. I wish the world was as simple as it was when we were kids, where there were seasons for sports and it never seemed like everything conflicted and people were not so blatantly
awful! Unfortunately that is not the world we are living in today. I want my kids to be able to contact me ANY time they need to.

As far as not knowing what is going on with them because of facebook texting and etc, shame on you...that is an excellent resource for parents to be able to not only see what's happening with your child, but also your childs friends. You would be amazed at what you can find out about people. Businesses use it when hiring, colleges use it when accepting students, why not parents? Mine know that their phones and their Internet usage will be monitored or else they won't have it for long!

Call me paranoid, call me nosey?! I don't care. I wish more parents would do the same!