Cellphones? Right Age to Start?

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-18-2006
Cellphones? Right Age to Start?
18
Wed, 03-14-2007 - 6:22pm

What do you think the right age is to start a cellphone?

Why?

and does anyone use Disney or something age-specific?

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-17-2005
Thu, 03-15-2007 - 8:48am

I just noticed they took the pay phone out of our school. They had more trouble with people messing around with it than it was actually used. I think the office lets kids use the phone after school if they need to.

Karin

Photobucket

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-17-2004
Thu, 03-15-2007 - 9:03am

"What do you think the right age is to start a cellphone?"

When YOU need her to have one. If it makes your life easier, then it is a good idea. Parents often get one when a child is in a lot of activites, or have irregular schedules. it is also a good electronic lease. I don't know why age would play into this decision.

"Why?"

Because you will be paying for it.

"and does anyone use Disney or something age-specific?"

I wouldn't because it would be cheaper to just add another line onto my account.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 03-15-2007 - 10:22am

I agree with the others that there's not really a right age to get one, it should be more based on a need.

My kids attended an 'on-base' military school a few years ago even though we lived off base. I found out the hard way that this base held regular, yet unscheduled lock down drills where they shut the gate for periods of time. After a couple of time of my kids getting worried about my not being there to pick them up after school because I was locked out for an hour combined with after school activities for my older son, we decided we didnt' like not being able to be in contact with our kids. My youngest was only in 5th grade but we made it very clear what the phone was for and NOT for. She's grown up pretty responsible with it since she's had it since she was so young. They started with plain phones, nothing fun on them but this Christmas they were allowed to upgrade to cool phones since they haven't been abusing the priveledge.

The phones are great leashes and if they get grounded this means losing the phone..which in turn means they can't leave the house without a grownup except for school!

Denise

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-05-2005
Thu, 03-15-2007 - 1:47pm

John and Kelley both got one at age 9 when they started walking home by themselves. But I am a single mom and don't like paying for a home phone, so that was the best option. John BARELY uses his except once a day to call and say.."I'm home". Kelley uses hers a little more, but mostly on the weekends when she knows the minutes are free. And we have free minutes after 7p.m. with sprint...so its nice. We never go over our minutes and if we do its usually my fault. We all have unlimited text messaging, but the kids hardly use it.

I never got them the kid only phones because I wanted them to learn the responsibility of having a "real" cell phone. Kelley is 12 now...and takes very good care of hers, so for her bday this year we are upgrading to a camera phone. John, well he just honestly still doesn't care much, so it sits on the kitchen counter when he is home or in his pocket when he is out, and he actually gets annoyed if I call him to much.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-06-2006
Thu, 03-15-2007 - 3:00pm

What do you think the right age is to start a cellphone?
I think it depends on the situation.

Why?
My girls got one when they were 8&9, because they had to stay after school for activities and I don't get off of work until 4:30, I get there about 5:00. They go to school in a very samll town and their father works only a few blocks from the school but I wanted them to be able to call either of us anytime they needed to. They have to ask to use the school phone and sometimes whomever is responsible won't let them use it more than once a day. I must say they don't even carry it most of the time now. They will use their older sister's phone when they need to.

and does anyone use Disney or something age-specific?

We just added another line onto our family talk plan and told the girls they were not alolowed to IM on it or talk to thrri friends non-stop. Now that cingular has unlimited phone to phone it's OK for them to call friends.

Tonya

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2006
Thu, 03-15-2007 - 8:48pm
The family has a Migo that we let my ds start carrying when he was 9. He was walking 4 blocks from school to an activity and we wanted him to have it in case he needed to get ahold of us. He checks it out and in when he needs it. He's also a swimmer and we've had several mixups in the practice schedule and it was a good thing he was able to call me so I could come and get him. We got the Migo because he was so young I wanted him to have a "younger" phone. He tends to push the envelope and wants to be older than he is so it was my compromise. When his sister gets older and has practices and activities that we don't stick around for she'll use the Migo and we'll get him a more "grown up" phone. Honestly, I'm more worried about her having a phone than her. She's our social butterfly and has the potential to rack up minutes and text messages.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2004
Sat, 03-17-2007 - 1:33am
I got my son a cell phone the summer before he went into middle school.


Powered by CGISpy.com

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2003
Sun, 03-18-2007 - 12:19am

That depends on the child and your needs.

Photobucket

Lilypie Breastfeeding Ticker

Pages