Precious Youngest turned sixteen this past July. And do you know what she got for her birthday? If you guessed a new car, you would be WRONG. She got a cell phone. Just as Precious Oldest did when SHE turned sixteen. And no, not a new and upgraded phone, but her first.cell phone.ever! I know, the horror! Call child protective services! For Pete’s sake fourth graders have cell phones! Don’t I know ANYTHING!?!?
Slap a tag on us that says “Preposterous”; there are things that the Saint and I can afford to give our children, but choose not to. It will shock and maybe appall you to learn that we believe coping with delayed gratification? Is a life skill. (Repeat after me: just because I can give my children something doesn’t mean I should.) I’ve heard all the arguments for giving cell phones to wee tots, but our parental decision was to wait until they turned sixteen. When they started driving, they would be going further a field and with less supervision. A cell phone would come in handy in case of emergency, car trouble, need of directions, etc.
We set in place a few rules too: “No use of cell phone while you’re driving” (I will admit to following them on occasion to make sure they were complying) and “Call as soon as you get there” (Not terribly successful as “I forgot” is one of the most used sentences in our house).
(And a word to the wise on that second rule. If you live with a wily teen? Make them call from a land line so that Caller ID verifies that they ended up where they said they were going. I'm just sayin'.)
Hmmm. I feel a bit better. If you're still reading
4 comments:
The Freshman's daughter has a cell phone for emergencies. It's constantly attached to her head, and I don't think it's an emergency.
I didn't hold out quite so long. When oldest was in the middle of 7th grade (so, like 12, almost 13?), I realized, that I wanted to be able to get a hold of HER. She was playing sports and starting to do things with groups of friends, and I wanted that lifeline. Somehow it evolved from there into her necessity, not mine. But, at 15, at least it's not constantly attached to her ear. It's constantly attached to her fingers. Can I tell you how much I absolutely detest texting? It's one more way for people not to have to actually talk to each other. (Plus, I really suck at it)
I'm mean for another reason. They have cell phones, but I said under no circumstances will any child of mine have a television, dvd player, or computer in their bedroom. They think this is not fair. I think they need to suck it up, because I didn't have a TV in my bedroom until I went to college and then lived at home during summer break after my freshman year. And I bought the thing myself!
Heh - I can't text worth SHIT, so watching them text drives me CRAZY. And I too have the no TV in the room dealio - when would we ever see them?
God bless you - thank you for not making me feel insane about the cellphone business (and everything else I'm supposed to give my children when they are way too young).
And isn't the concurrence of menopause and teenagers just nature's cruelest joke, or what?
As far as no internet in the bedroom, that is a security measure, as far as I am concerned. We have numerous friends in law enforcement and they would (almost) rather let their kids drive drunk than to be on the Internet where the parents can't see them.
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