Children, mobile phones and parental differences.

bestpud

ailuro2 wrote: »

I wrote the comment about the wrist device with tongue in cheek - it's called a watch.;)

If kids are old enough to be out playing out of earshot of the house, then imho they should be old enough to tell the time and come home at the time they've been given.:D

Lol, ok! :doh::o Bit slow on the uptake there!

Mine just come back when they are asked, by telling the time, but I was thinking a timer would actually be useful for them if they were busy playing iyswim?

Like I set the timer on my mobile when I have parked the car and have to be back by a set time...

Means I am not constantly checking the time.

Oh well... :rotfl:

vik6525

My son, age 9 has got his own mobile, and i think its the best thing i ever got him! He spends weekends with his dad, so its fantastic that he can text and ring me now whenever he wants to. Last week, for example, he went on holiday with his grandparents. Every other year Ive been a crying mess when hes gone, cause ive had to rely on THEM to ring me (theyre his dads parents, and we SOOO dont have a good relationship) but this year, my boy has been ringing and texting whenever hes wanted to.

Savvy_Sue

bestpud wrote: »

However, does anyone else reading this thread wonder how people managed before they could give their child a mobile phone to carry with them?

ailuro2 wrote: »

when anyone needed to phone home they used to use payphones - it was part of the stuff you needed to have in your pocket at Brownies - a 2p piece for the phone.(I'm showing my age now - hard to believe you would ever be able to use a two pence piece for anything essential!)

That's what, bestpud! But there are now fewer phone boxes, and they cost a heck of a lot more than 2p (will I show my age if I say we used to press Button B and see if anyone had left 1d in the slot? :rotfl:)

onlyroz

With O2 you can set up the "Family bolt-on", where you can get free calls between up to 5 phones. So if you wanted your child to have a phone that they can contact you on and nobody else then this would be a solution. My kids are all too young for phones but when they get old enough to be going out and about on their own or with friends then I might consider it. I'm not paying for them to text their mates though...

Spendless

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I would be gob-smacked if in this day and age any secondary school could enforce a "no mobile phones to be brought to school" rule.

Certainly my boys have had a "no mobile phones to be used during the school day" rule strictly enforced, BUT with the distances many of them are travelling, with no 'school bus' service, mine had one from day one to ensure I could find out where they were if they were late home!

However, not before then in this household either!

The reason I *think* this is due to my friends who had older children at the school, I wondered if the school's rules had changed since so I've just tried looking on the school's website but couldn't find anything, but it's possible I've missed it as it might be 'buried' under a different topic.

The school is on a major bus route and there are school buses to the catchment area villages. If you miss the school bus though, it's a pig to walk to in bad weather as the route takes you either down a deserted country lane, across a deserted playing field, by busy roads that don't have proper crossings or footpaths or is 2 buses, one towards the town centre and another one back. When the floods happened here 2 years ago the school closed with little notice.

It's for the above reason that DS has been started let to start finding his way to and from...... I've not let him go as far as some of his peers but I also didn't want his first experience of being without an adult to be as he started secondary school.

jellyhead

aliasojo wrote: »

At 9 she is still very much under my care, isn't allowed to wander about aimlessly and is under a fairly tight reign so I see no need for a phone.

This seemed to be the difference between my son's friends - those who wandered further afield and had more freedom were the ones who got a phone earlier. At 9 there were those who 'played out' and those who were only allowed on organised visits to houses of others, when the mums knew they were coming.

My son loses everything anyhow. He now keeps his phone and key looped around his bike handlebar, which is useless when it's left in someone's garden and we're trying to call him back for dinner :rolleyes: He seems unable to zip up bags or pockets, so everything falls out. He wouldn't notice if a phone fell out of his pocket.

He doesn't notice the time, so telling him to be back at 6 is useless, but setting a timer would make him look too babyish I think. A phone's a good idea, if he keeps it with him.

He's 13 though, he didn't have one at age 9. If I were the OP I'd probably accept the offer of the old phone, so as not to embarass my son, but I'd think it was pretty sad that other kids thought my son was in need purely because he didn't have a mobile phone.

creased-leach

Apart from our eldest, who was probarbly around 14, our have/will have a phone when they start secondary. Chasing info when our eldest first went and the bus broke down/driver got lost/ stuck in snow was an utter nightmare. Now if they're late we can call them (or they us) and ascertain if we need to go rescue them.

I have grave worries about the long term health implications of mobiles, especially when kids are involved.

Our kids are always off around the village with their mates. If youngest DD (almost 10) is off on her own, rather than with friends she's given a walkie talkie to communicate with.

BitterAndTwisted

My sister and her oldest daughter had a serious disagreement about her having a mobile phone at the age of about 11. Problem was that every single one of her school pals had a mobile and she was the only one who did not. Auntie devised a plan that niece could buy a pay-as-you-go one out of her own savings and top-ups would only be paid for out of her own pocket-money. Tough one though: I could understand quite well why my sister didn't want to get a mobile for her daughter herself but could not comprehend why she should be trying to control her daughter's own money. Darling niece understood very, very quickly how much cash could be frittered away chatting to pals who were living less than a 500 yards away and were seen every single day. A great lesson in my opinion and a much better one than Mummy controlling the purse-strings 24/7, no matter how well-intentioned.

aliasojo

jellyhead wrote: »

If I were the OP I'd probably accept the offer of the old phone, so as not to embarass my son, but I'd think it was pretty sad that other kids thought my son was in need purely because he didn't have a mobile phone.

I wont compromise my principles just to avoid my daughter some embarrassment. There's no point in standing up for what you believe if you're just going to give in over something like that. (Imo )

creased-leach wrote: »

If youngest DD (almost 10) is off on her own, rather than with friends she's given a walkie talkie to communicate with.

We have walkie talkies too. When my girl first got out to play further afield than just outside the house, she carried a w/t so we could buzz her when it was time to come in. She seems to have developed a kind of sixth sense now though as she tends to appear when she's meant to and the w/t ended up on the shelf again.

bestpud

onlyroz wrote: »

With O2 you can set up the "Family bolt-on", where you can get free calls between up to 5 phones. So if you wanted your child to have a phone that they can contact you on and nobody else then this would be a solution. My kids are all too young for phones but when they get old enough to be going out and about on their own or with friends then I might consider it. I'm not paying for them to text their mates though...

That's what I was thinking of (if I did get one for my littlie), as me, my ex, and our 17 year old dd are all with O2, and I thought dd(7) would only be able to text one of us then, and I would know dd(17) could always call us if she needed, even if she had no credit.

It's quite good I think as it includes picture messages, or so I was told...

It would mean we wouldn't have to top it up for her and she wouldn't be able to accidentally call anyone else.