What is the appropriate cell phone age?
It was a hot topic when I crowd sourced on Facebook the question what was the appropriate age to get a cell phone for my eldest son. Lots of valuable comparative notes from both parents who have presented the gift of text to their various aged kids and the parents that have children that are nowhere near the prospective cell phone years. Although some admitted that age is closer than they originally thought.
Here is where I stand. I don’t like the idea of Hudson with a cell phone. Deep down I don’t like the image of 10 or 11 year old kids face down furiously punching away on their phones. And the stories I hear of tweens sitting in the same room all texting each other is pretty much ridiculous. I am also not influenced one iota by the “My entire class has one.” Which, upon further prodding, turned out to be about eight kids in the 26 kids in his class.
That being said, we are giving Hudson more and more freedom, walking to school alone, walking to play dates alone, walking to the store to get me Diet Coke and Crunchits alone (only three or four times a week…), so the idea of being able to confirm his arrival or adding additional bags of salty snacks to my order via text seems pretty handy to me.
Both Tasman and Hudson see my wife and I on our phones all the time. Both our jobs require us to be pretty much in touch with co-workers during non-traditional hours. So it is a normal part of what they witness every day. No, they are not adults with jobs, but I am trying to paint a picture of the environment in which they live.
Ultimately it’s a peace of mind thing. My peace of mind. He has proven he can protect and not lose something valuable as he has maintained possession of an Ipod Touch for almost two years. But I just can’t do it yet, so to end the woe is me lament of a lanky fifth grader I told him if he continues upon this road of responsibility without effing up, he will have a talk and text phone by the time he enters grade six.
This is what we think works for our kids.
What are your thoughts on kids and cell phones?
When will you be getting them one?
jury is still out on this (but i have time since my oldest is just 10). to me it wouldn’t be a safety issue since if, god forbid, she did get grabbed on the street she will not be calling me as by the time she gets thrown in a car the perp will probably have gotten it from her already. you can’t just say, excuse me but before you kidnap me can i call my mom?
i’d rather her use her energy to kick the s.o.b. in the nads and running to beat hell than waste her energy digging for a phone.
even on the way home from school there are any number of businesses she can run in to and people all over the neighbourhood out and about if there is a problem. i want her first though to be “get away” not “phone mom”. it only takes 10 minutes to walk home (if that) and if she’s not home in 15 there will be hell to pay phone or not. then i’d ground her and take her phone away 🙂