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Two 14-year-old sisters, one in 8th grade and one in 9th. Middle school and high school. The other day the 9th grader was let out 45 minutes early from some band practice, she was locked out of school, couldn't find anybody with a phone, ended up waiting outside all that time for Daddy to come at designated time.
OK so she needs a phone. I have a flip phone I rarely use, don't like and am willing to give to her for purpose of calling home, etc. But Nooooooooooooooooooooooo. It's not cool to have a flip phone and she would be mortified for anybody to see her using it! Daughter tells her daddy that teachers all the time say "get out your phone and go to xyz ". Could that possibly be true. I'm sure she is not the only one without a phone.
DH says they both need phones and we can get ones without data plan.
Here's my problem---besides I'm old and grumpy. We are on them all the time about too much screen time and here he is talking about giving them one more screen!
So do your 14 year old kids have smart phones? Do teachers really assume all kids have them and use them as part of instruction?
If we got them, the rule would be the same as it is for their nexus and laptops---only used downstairs in family room and never upstairs in the bedrooms.
I really was hoping we could hold off til they are 16 but maybe that's not realistic. I know it is important to fit in but damn...this could get expensive. DH has company phone, I don't want a smart phone and we are not used to this expense.
Two 14-year-old sisters, one in 8th grade and one in 9th. Middle school and high school. The other day the 9th grader was let out 45 minutes early from some band practice, she was locked out of school, couldn't find anybody with a phone, ended up waiting outside all that time for Daddy to come at designated time.
OK so she needs a phone. I have a flip phone I rarely use, don't like and am willing to give to her for purpose of calling home, etc. But Nooooooooooooooooooooooo. It's not cool to have a flip phone and she would be mortified for anybody to see her using it! Daughter tells her daddy that teachers all the time say "get out your phone and go to xyz ". Could that possibly be true. I'm sure she is not the only one without a phone.
DH says they both need phones and we can get ones without data plan.
Here's my problem---besides I'm old and grumpy. We are on them all the time about too much screen time and here he is talking about giving them one more screen!
So do your 14 year old kids have smart phones? Do teachers really assume all kids have them and use them as part of instruction?
If we got them, the rule would be the same as it is for their nexus and laptops---only used downstairs in family room and never upstairs in the bedrooms.
I really was hoping we could hold off til they are 16 but maybe that's not realistic. I know it is important to fit in but damn...this could get expensive. DH has company phone, I don't want a smart phone and we are not used to this expense.
Go ahead and get it.
It really is true that smart phones are the majority. My youngest (now 7th grade) got his at 12. Yes, they use them in school, but only in very limited circumstances. I would be surprised if they use theirs IN CLASS "all the time."
Mine uses his calendar and checks his own grades on his. You can set limits and keep the same rules as other electronics. It does get expensive; Verizon is probably our third-largest bill each month. But I have 5 people with iPhones on our plan.
... she was locked out of school, couldn't find anybody with a phone...
... Daughter tells her daddy that teachers all the time say "get out your phone and go to xyz ". Could that possibly be true. I'm sure she is not the only one without a phone.
These statements contradict each other. How could she have been outside for 45 minutes and not a single person had a phone, yet "everyone" has a phone?
Think about it... not everyone has a phone, and you need to do what you want to do, not what "everyone" else's parents are doing.
My 14 year old has a smart phone. It's a prepaid phone. I paid $30 for the phone and then the bill is $37/month. We did it this way so that she couldn't go over the limit and it wouldn't be expensive if she lost it. It's unlimited minutes and messages, then 1 gig data. She uses the WIFI at home if she's going to download anything, so that amount of data is fine.
I was surprised that my daughter didn't really care about having a phone. She likes her tablet a lot, but the phone is less important to her. I wanted her to have it because I leave her home sometimes and we don't have a home phone anymore. It was the same per month to get her a phone or to have home phone service again, so it made more sense to get her a phone.
Today's 14-year-olds never had postage stamps you could lick. They've always had self-adhesive stamps, if they ever felt inclined to use snail mail. Different generations have different mindsets.
All the kids getting off the school bus have smartphones.
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