Kids and cell phones......

coupqn1999 · 08-30-2005, 09:28 PM

Well all I want to start by saying I was one of those"my kids will not have a cell phone until they have a job" moms. Well I decided to get one for them for emergency since I am working now and get off work 20 minutes before school gets out and I am 15 minutes from the school. Mind you my Boys are 10,9 and 8. Well off to Cingular we went on Sunday,planning to add 1 only one phone to my plan.I left adding 3

now I am going to produce a contract of rules that must be followed pertaining to said phones.
What do you all think?

Sara Noel · 08-30-2005, 09:38 PM

I can't really comment much since Gabe and I as adults don't even have a cell phone. My kids are so young that I'm still in the mindset of "not my kids".

I will say that I've seen very young children with cell phones, so I don't think it's uncommon at all. Have you seen the firefly mobile kid's phones?

Missy · 08-30-2005, 09:56 PM

i myself am too irresponsible when it comes to phone useage, so I got myself a pay as you go phone. it's working well for me right now. I think that when DS1 is ten i will get him one in the same pay as you go type.

sunshine · 08-31-2005, 05:37 AM

We have Cingulair- and all 3 of my kids have their own phones on our family plan. We have free nights and weekends, and free cell to cell within the Cingulair network, so . . . . I tell them they can use them to call other people on Cingulair, or they can call at night/weekends. . . otherwise, it had better be an EMERGENCY for them to use their phones. (all 3 of my kids drive, and we live in the boonies).

mtjsmom · 08-31-2005, 06:58 AM

I will be getting Taya the Firefly phone for her birthday. I think its a wonderful alternative to a reg cell. I just dont like the idea of her being able to call whoever, whenever she wants but I want her to be safe when walking to and from school. She will be 11 in October and its her 1st yr at Jr High and its a bit of a walk..

PrairieRose · 08-31-2005, 09:39 AM

My dk's never had their own cell phones. When they needed one, like when they would be driving somewhere in the evening without us, or if we needed to be able to reach them for a specific reason we'd send one of our's with them.

3boys1girl · 09-09-2005, 10:12 AM

We have phones thru Verizon with the Family Share Plan. My DD has a phone but, I did call Verizon and had some features blocked. There was not a charge for this and you might want to look into this. Good Luck!

mommy2many · 09-09-2005, 11:21 AM

The only reason that my DD's (the older ones) have cell phones is because my Dh works for a cell phone company and all our cells are free....if he were to change jobs we would only have one cell phone.

I admit it though I do like being able to call DD when she is playing down the street

HandyMom · 09-09-2005, 12:32 PM

No cell phones in this home. I have a 13 yo DD and she has no use for a cell phone either. I like the fact that she has to let me know where she is and comes home to check in every hour or so.

If she had a cell, she would be making lots of excuses of why she isn't home on time, etc, and putting me on the spot.

I saw this happening with her friends who were on the cell with their Mom, complaining they had to leave and whining to stay.

Since I've managed fine without a cell, I feel no need to take on the extra expense.

I've been considering walkie-talkies, though, because the cost of those have finally come down a lot.

Goodi2shooz · 09-09-2005, 01:04 PM

No cell phones in our house either. But you have to do what works best for your family. It's simple enough to remove the phone if it causes problems.
My pet peeves with cell phones include:
People talking while driving (my husband was nearly killed by one of these idiots)
People talking in restaurants and movies
People blocking supermarket aisles while talking on cell phones
The chronically unemployed and welfare abusers with cell phones.
Children being allowed to use them completely without limits.

pita1213 · 09-09-2005, 03:46 PM

if it is what works for your family for with it. right now only dh and i have cell phones. dks are 9 and 7 and don't need to have one. when they are older and are driving, we will probably get them one, but we'll have to see.
my biggest thing about cell phones andkids, is that the kid needs to be responsible enough to have one. some kids are responsible at 12 others aren't ready for one even at 21.
my mil had to take one away from one of her daughters who was 20 at the time because she was calling friends that weren't on teh network and used up all of the minutes. then had to turn around and take one away from her other son who was 21 for the same thing. but neither of the 2 of them are responsible at all so it didn't surprise me much when she had to do that. Anyway...

if you think your kids can handle the responsibility, i don't see a problem with it.

sanderson76 · 09-28-2005, 12:11 PM

No cell phones for our kids either. Me and DH both have one if they need to reach us, but as DH has said..we are always with her when she goes places most of the time. We do have an extra cell phone because DH's work furnishes him with one too...if the girls are at a school function I will send them with mine and I carry DH's personal one..it works for us.

Our oldest DD had a cell phone for the first time when she was 11 and we found out she was sneaking and using it late at night and her friends were calling that phone..so it was taken away.