Thoughts on kids and cell phones

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I personally think they are a nusance, and most days I’d like to throw mine in the garbage can. Our daughter was told that if she wanted a cell phone she would have to pay for it by herself, and we would not cosign for one. I see my friends children who can not have a conversation in a social setting with real people, but are continuously texting. I really believe this generation of kids are going to be socialy inept, that being said…check out what the vatican is doing…
multimedia.boston.com/pub/m/21704981/vatican_approves_book_of_prayers_to_be_iphonoes_ipods.htm
 
In my case a cell phone is needed. My oldest has had one since he was 13. It helps me and him to be better able to communicate, and to make sure he is doing what is needed. He is on the family plan and has unlimited txt and more than enough minutes. If he loses or breaks the phone, he is responsible for buying a new one.
Between school and work his father and I are so busy, and he does sooooo much around the house to help us out, I couldn’t imagine not being able to find him at any time. DH and I pay the bill, (we only have to pay the $10 for the extra line) we’ve never asked him to help, after all he already takes on more responsibility than alot of adults I know. We don’t have many chances to give our kids luxury items (there will be no Christmas presents again this year for them) and they don’t ask for much, this is one of the few things we can give him.
 
ChristinaM said:
:eek: Texting someone in the same house, especially your mom?

I’m sorry, I had to laugh a little bit at that one. Kids these days, I swear. 😛

I didn’t have a cell phone until I went off to college. It’s amazing how fast things have changed in just a couple of years!
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Psh, kids nothing. My future mother-in-law will text and/or call family via cell phone if she’s in a different room. Last time we were at her house, she called her daughter (who was upstairs in her bedroom) on a cell phone to ask her to come downstairs.

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ChristinaM said:
:eek: Texting someone in the same house, especially your mom?

I’m sorry, I had to laugh a little bit at that one. Kids these days, I swear. 😛

I didn’t have a cell phone until I went off to college. It’s amazing how fast things have changed in just a couple of years!
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Yeah, when she did that I was pretty torqued. I think the main thing to keep stressing is that all the technology that is coming out is not a replacemet for actual interpersonal communication. I find it so rude when I see people sitting down at a meal and their on their cell phones or texting. That is really a pet peeve of mine.
 
EmBee said:
Psh, kids nothing. My future mother-in-law will text and/or call family via cell phone if she’s in a different room. Last time we were at her house, she called her daughter (who was upstairs in her bedroom) on a cell phone to ask her to come downstairs.

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We are guilty of that ourselves:blush: . I will call ds to ask him to come help me, or dh will txt me when he is in the next room to ask something silly, or to discuss things without the kids hearing.
 
BamaRider said:
I can prolly go along with a 13 year with a cell phone, but he/she would have it for my convinience, and I’d make sure they knew that.
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I’ll probably be declared a mean mom, but somehow, although the kids and I have never actually discussed this, they know this is exactly my perspective. I recently overheard my daughter telling my son something along these lines 😃 !
 
We have three tracfones in our house, and one of them is mine. The other two are used by whoever is running around, so I can reach them. Cell phone usage in our home is all about me! It’s for my own peace of mind, and I honestly can’t imagine my life without the beloved cell phone 🙂 That said, since we have tracfone, we use our minutes wisely. I never use my cell phone to casually chat. My teenager is allowed a little texting, not much. And we have definite cell phone rules in this house. I buy the minutes, so I have complete control, and when rules aren’t followed, privileges are lost.

I love cell phones!
Lauren
 
While I do appreciate face to face interpersonal communication I work in a setting in a lab where I cannot use a phone to call anyone on the outside. I do enjoy when I head out on break and see a nice 🙂 or really nice 😃 text from my dh letting me know he is thinking of me since I only get to see him on weekends right now until my job transfers me down to our new home which will hopefully be mid-month. He works evenings and I work days so it is rough but we love each other and those little texts sometimes make everything much easier to bear. However, that being said children should not be in those types of relationships and should have rules regarding usage. My dsd does not use hers after 9. She also does NOT bring it to school. She only brings it to outside of school events.

God bless,
 
Okay, after a visit over to my husband’s family, I have added another rule. No cell phone during family vacations! After sitting in the living room at our sister-in-law’s house and actually having a face to face conversation among us adults, I walked to the back room to see how the kids (all teenagers) were doing. They were - no joke - texting each other in addition to other friends. Yes, in the same room. I took the phones from our kids and walked back into the living room. My SIL asked what was wrong and I told her. She couldn’t see what was the problem. So I told her that they were sitting in the same room, texting each other. Still, she couldn’t see what the big deal was. So I said, “Ok, I guess we can drive home now. Afterall, we drove over to visit you when all we really needed to do was stay at home and just tect you.” My BIL said, “Good point!” he walked back and took his kids’ phone away. LOL!
 
I did have a cell in high school. You know why? Our HS wouldn’t let us use the phone at the end of the day at times, which drove my mother crazy because we did need to reach each other.

Rules were:
  1. No texting plan for HS.
  2. No using it during school hours.
  3. No using it to talk to friends on the phone. Emergencies/ride home only.
Now, I have a different plan that allows me to text and free minutes on weekends, but only because I’m in college, so I can talk to my family and make plans with friends, etc. I really don’t use it that much.
 
Well, I am going to be brave and admit that my 8 year old has his own cell phone. :o

He does have texting capability, but he has never abused it. He mainly sends a message to his dad’s phone every now and then. He also does not have internet access through it.

He has the phone for a few reasons: One, we do not have a landline, and my husband wanted there to be an extra phone in the house (besides mine) in case I have an accident or are incapacitated while alone with the kids (we homeschool). That way, if my son can’t find my phone, he can find his and call dad or 911.

Also, we have a brick playhouse (once a small garage) in the back of our property, and if my son is out there and I need him to come inside, I can’t leave the babies alone to run out there. So this way I can call him.

He takes his phone out to the playhouse, and if he’s playing over at a friend’s, so that I can call him, but otherwise it stays at home. So far he’s been very responsible, and the extra phone has come in handy for times such as when I’ve left my own phone in my husband’s car. 😊
 
The two saddest things I saw with cell phone usage was in the summer when visiting in Colorado, a friend answered her cell phone and it was her daughter who was downstairs in the rec room. But the worst was a young peson at Mass in the communion line texting…pathetic.

Kathy
 
Well, our kids are still small 7, 5, 4 and 2 but hubby and I have already discussed cell phones. Of course things change as they actually reach a certain age but as of now, here’s how it goes:

NO texting or internet, nothing irks me more that texting all the freakin’ time. My SIL at Christmas was texting all though the evening even at the table. It took all I could not to throw it across the room:o.

My DH being in the Army believes in issuing everything:rolleyes: so if they are going somewhere they will be issued a phone (after signing it out in triplicate:p) until they are driving themselves. At that point they pay for it themselves.

If we’re all going somewhere together, church, sports, vacations the kids don’t need their phones. They’ll stay at home.

I do like the idea of another poster about charging the phones in our room at a certain time for the night. Good Idea!
 
We have a 13 year old. He doesn’t have a phone. He is one of the only one of his friends that doesn’t.
He is home schooled. He is too young to drive. He really doesn’t go anywhere unless we know where he is. He really doesn’t need a cell phone.
If for some reason, I feel he needs one, he borrows my phone.
I don’t see getting him one until he starts to drive.
 
I feel I should clarify–we don’t have a landline phone. My cell phone is it, unless DH is home or my son’s phone is turned on. So if i were incapacitated and my son couldn’t find my phone (or be too shy to dig it out of my jean pocket, where it usually is :o ) he’d use his phone to call 911.
 
I always said my children were not going to have cell phones. We usually end up eating our words, don’t we? 🙂 We live out in the country and my son (who was 13) would ride the mile and a half into town to play with his friends. He would have a certain time he was supposed to be home, but when the kids are outside playing… so I would have to go get in the car and go around town looking for him. (If I called a friends house the mom would say that they were outside playing). We had an extra Tracfone so I keep it in my desk drawer and issue it to him when he goes into town. He can let me know whose house he is at or ask if he can play longer. Conversely I can call him to remind him it’s time to come home. It has worked well. No cell phone usage at home, it is not for idle conversations. Our only problem has been when the boys are playing football and he sometimes takes it off so as not to lose it or break it while they are playing.
 
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