My 8 year old reports that many of his school friends do indeed have cell phones but they all know they may not use them at school. My question is, why? Where is my 8 year old gonna be that I need him to call me on a cell phone? Am I just living in the stone age or what?
Talking to other parents, the kids that seem to have the phones are very active and attending multiple after school activities. The phones help in case Mom is late or kids get out of practice early. OK, I can see the point but there are adults at all of these activities that have there own phone, right? Yes, my friend admits, but having her child have his own phone gives her a level of comfort that he is safe. Ah so in that case at least it is just as much about the parent as the child.
Now the question is, "How do you control the beast?" There are a few guidelines that every expert agrees on!
- Choose a cell phone and plan the parent can control. Like the ones on www.kajeet.com. Parents can control minutes for phone and text plus set limits on who can be contacted, incoming and outgoing messages!
- Pick a phone with a GPS. The almost all have them now. Get to know how to use it, become familiar with the computer interface. 2AM, when you are worried about your teenager, is no time to be figuring it out!
- Educate your child about cell phone safety. Calls and texts can be intercepted. Teach them to limit personal information when using a wireless device.
- Think of this Cell phone as a mini computer. Monitor your kids activity, either by occasionally picking up the phone and checking out the call history, or using online tools from your cell phone provider.
- Most importantly, keep communicating face to face with your child. Let them know this is just a tool. Encourage them to share any concerns, fears, or questions they may have. Good advice for cell phones and life in general!
How do you handle cell phones with your kids? I want to know!
This post was written as an entry in a TwitterMoms blogging contest in partnership with Kajeet.com. Check out TwitterMoms.com, I love it!
2 comments:
UMMMMMMM let me think??? HELL NO they do NOT need a cell phone. Who is he going to call besides you and dad? There is NO reason to give him a cell phone. He Does not go anywhere without you.
Anonymous: I disagree. My eight-year-old has had one for over a year. It's a base model we got on the family plan for the major cellphone carrier my wife worked for. He's not chained to me; like when he goes to school or a friend's house, birthday parties or soccer practice.
We stored the numbers for us, his grandparents, and 911. Thank god he's never had to use the latter. But he's called us to ask permission to eat at a friend's and when he was too shy to use another friend's phone to ask us to come get him because he was uncomfortable.
one other thing that bears repeating here: The phone has GPS. If the phone's on and he gets lost, or if the unthinkable happens (and not to be paranoid, but it's a big mean world,) we at least know where the phone is.
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