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So until a kid makes a call every day they have no plans for a ride home?
I had no desire to sit in a parking lot waiting for coaches to release the various teams from practice. I waited for the call telling me practice was over, as there was never a schedule that was adhered to.
I thought of this thread here in Atlanta this week. Parents were frantic with the lack of information after schools dismissed all at once, traffic gridlocked, and motorists got stuck on the roads. Some of these kids were on buses all night. Because school buses were iced off the roads, the children were placed on other bus numbers. In other words, the transportation office couldn't verify which student was on which bus.
My neighbor's 6th grader left school at 2:00, and walked in the door at 10:40 that night. I'm pretty sure he'll get a cell phone this week. Yes, that's an extreme example, but a cheap cell phone would have saved a lot of parents a great deal of anxiety.
As I said before, in many case, the phones are as much for the parents' peace of mind as they are for the children.
I think 12 and 13 year olds having their own cellphones is downright idiotic.
We don't have a landline anymore. We got rid of it when our kids were 11, 14, 16 years old. We were paying $45 per month for it and the service on another cell phone for our youngest was only $10 per month. Why would that be idiotic?
So until a kid makes a call every day they have no plans for a ride home?
The thing is practice doesn't always end at the same time. So while I plan to pick my kids up when practice is over it is much easier to stay home until I get a call that practice is over than to spend an hour sitting in the car.
So until a kid makes a call every day they have no plans for a ride home?
No, but things happen and sometimes plans change so that a ride is needed at a different time...ie it starts raining so soccer practice ends an hour earlier, etc.
My son got one last summer at 11. He is often at different sports, cousins, aunts and uncles, grand parents, friend's houses and sleeping over.
It's rather nice to know where he is all the time. Plans change a lot. He already called me for a ride when the teachers announcements of buses loading didn't work. Many grades missed their buses.
Kids had to stand around waiting for the teachers to call their parents, but he just used his phone.
I dont see anything wrong with getting a younger child a cell phone, but I sure wouldnt pay on a monthly plan, unless I already had a plan and it was just $10 a month or something. If I felt it would be a convenience we could use as a family, I would get them a tracfone and it would be a simple one without internet. I am in my 60's and I just got my FIRST semi-smartphone, and it is still a tracfone! I got by just fine without it, though. The reality is that it is NOT a necessity, just a convenience. I dont care how busy you or your child is-there are almost always ways to make contact without using cell phones.
I dont see anything wrong with getting a younger child a cell phone, but I sure wouldnt pay on a monthly plan, unless I already had a plan and it was just $10 a month or something. If I felt it would be a convenience we could use as a family, I would get them a tracfone and it would be a simple one without internet. I am in my 60's and I just got my FIRST semi-smartphone, and it is still a tracfone! I got by just fine without it, though. The reality is that it is NOT a necessity, just a convenience. I dont care how busy you or your child is-there are almost always ways to make contact without using cell phones.
Why should a child not get a phone simply because you didn't get one until you were in your 60s? What does one thing have to do with the other?
I could see the relevance of having one so their parents can always get ahold of them, but I just think when a kid is old enough to start paying their own bill, say sixteen. It's just laughable to me to think of eleven, thirteen, fourteen-year olds with cell phones but I know times are changing.
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