Phone given to a six year old?

NineDeuce wrote: »

Lazy excuses. If I felt that having a mobile phone at the age of 6 is of detriment to my child (which it would be) then I wouldnt just 'undercut her machinations and go with the flow'. That is just a ridiculous stance.

That's your view but not mine.

onlyroz wrote: »

Or listen to music, the radio or podcasts.

Or to take photographs.

Or to learn another language (Duolingo is excellent, and my daughter has been using Google Translate to speak to me in Spanish).

My also daughter uses hers as the controller for her Just Dance game on the PS4.

Because the average child will not use their phone to use Duolingo, will they?

The dangers of overexposure to social media, overreliance on an electronic device, phone addiction potential and detriment to actual social skills outweigh the benefits of being able to have an in-built controller for a Just Dance game..... or not?

NineDeuce wrote: »

Lazy excuses. If I felt that having a mobile phone at the age of 6 is of detriment to my child (which it would be) then I wouldnt just 'undercut her machinations and go with the flow'. That is just a ridiculous stance.

Home computers are very different things to mobile phones, and so this is not a relevant comparison. You cant go out and stare at your home computer screens while out in social, educational or external environments.

Checking your Facebook updates constantly just in case somebody put a photo of what they had for breakfast up in the last 2 minutes does affect that

I agree with you that many people become addicted/attached to phones to a ridiculous extent.


But surely it's better to teach children how to use the phone. I don't see how keeping them away from them will help. It's just putting it off.


Left to their own devices (excuse pun:o) many children would stuff their faces with sweets, never clean their teeth or get dressed. No responsible adult would just 'go with the flow' on that.


There's a huge amount of leeway and opportunity to educate children between 'go with the flow' and being a modern day Canute.

She's six, you can manage this without a confrontation with her mum - keep her busy, offer the tablet, leave it on the side and don't charge it.....

You and her mum will not see eye to eye on any number of things - going in swinging will not help your daughter in the long run, and you cannot control what she does when she isn't with you.

On an access visit my ex got my daughters ears pierced, I had always been against the idea, thought they were too young, he knew I hated it - but his new, heavily pierced girlfriend and he decided that if they wanted it done that was fine.

I didn't even pick the phone up - no doubt he watched it for a couple of days all excited waiting for the call, but by then I'd got sick of trying to reason with someone who used our children as tools to try to undermine and hurt me.

You and your ex have a long long dance ahead of you - it's a simless phone. In reality, in the bigger picture, how is your tablet different? If it IS screensize then just say to your daughter - the tablet is here, it's bigger, that's easier to use, I have no issue with your phone (it stays downstairs, no phones in the bedroom) - but I'd rather you used the tablet.

Leave the posturing with the ex out of it - you can't control her any more - shared parenting doesn't give you any rights over her decisions, nor does it give you the casting vote on how your daughter should be raised.

In an ideal world you would raise her by consensus, but if that isn't going to happen (and clearly it isn''t) then you have to make the best of it and cause as little damage as you can.

But how is having a phone with sim card in it somehow worse than having a tablet?

I think that's the question you need to be prepared to respond to. You say she can use your ipad to play games and facetime, so what's the difference? I expect her mum is addicted to her phone, DD got used to seeing her on it and is regularly asking her to let her phone to play games. Mum got a new phone so gave her old one to DD to play these games.

I'm sorry to say but you picked the woman to have a child with, you can't now turn her into another person who share the same values than you. Your DD will be exposed to things her mum considers appropriate whether you like it or not.

If you want to be a good influence, make sure to arrange a lot of activities for your DD when she is with you so she doesn't feel the need to go on the phone. Tell her that when she is with you, you decide when she can play with the phone and agree on a time when she can.

You are much more likely to get your DD not to realise that there is more than to play on a phone this way than by fighting a lost battle with her mum.