Baltimore Nesties
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w -- BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w -- BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
BFP#4: 07/12, M/C 5w3d -- BFP#5: 12/12, EDD 08/18/13
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
s/o Cell Phones for kids
So kind of speaking of the post about cell phones in school and the other post about getting kids an email account...
How old will your kid(s) be when you get them a cell phone? Will it be a normal phone, or something pre-programmed?
I know this is years away for most of us but I feel like I need to be on my game and stay one step ahead of DS because I'm sure he will try to pull something on me. But then again, I always felt that my mom was unnecessarily and arbitrarily strict about stuff and I don't want to be like that. This technology thing was just not an issue when I was in school. I had a pager in high school (super cool) and didn't have a cell phone until I was 20.
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w -- BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w -- BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
BFP#4: 07/12, M/C 5w3d -- BFP#5: 12/12, EDD 08/18/13
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Re: s/o Cell Phones for kids
It really depends on how I think he'll handle having one as he gets older. If he has our trust, which I hope he will, we will probably try a phone when he's 13 or so. If he shows any signs of abusing it - and if we *ever* have issues with him using it at school - it will be switched to a phone that can only be used to call mom, dad and 911 - or none at all. But when the time comes we might be far more conservative than this.
As far as I'm concerned, cell phones are lazy parenting. You should be keeping up with your kids, not vice versa.
ETA: I'm not trying to pretend I've got this all figured out. Just my best guess based on what seems reasonable right now - I'm sure we'll work it out one step at a time when the time comes.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
Ditto Rags - I think somewhere around 12ish seems right. I know my friend started letting her son use one about 10.5/11 when he would take bike rides or was at camp, etc. I don't think he has his own phone yet, but I'm sure it'll be coming soon.
I also think you have to monitor it and also, if every kid in DD's school/class had one @ 7 or 8 (which I doubt), I wouldn't want her to be the odd one out just because I arbitrarily decided 11 was more appropriate. So. .. I think its fluid.
I pay $5 a month to be able to add time restrictions on my ds's phone. You can also add special numbers that are excempt from that--it's $5 definitely well spent.
To answer the question, I first gave him one in the 7th grade because he walked to the library from school every day. It was a pre-paid phone. When he entered high school, I put him on our plan.
It's going to depend on so many factors. I can see myself letting him have one of those pre-programmed ones for calling us, and maybe my parents or something in the event of an emergency, at some point in elementary school maybe?
One with texting and everything else? eek. I think middle school-ish. But I really don't know. H's cousin got one two years ago when she was 9 (almost 10) because she has diabetes, and their bus driver has no cell phone, no radio, nothing - no way to communicate in the event of an emergency, which is stupid to me in general but whatever - so she got a cell phone for christmas because her parents wanted her to have in the event something health-related happened on the bus. She's also mature, responsible etc.
It was funny to me bc at the time she texted her aunt (H's mom), her own mom, H and me all the time, bc none of her friends had cell phones ha. Now she's almost 12 and most of her friends have cells so she texts us less often lol.
So in the event of something such as that - a health condition or the like - I would be willing to let them have a cell phone earlier I think. But in general - no. My nephew doesn't have one and he's fine (12, in 6th grade) - I think a few of the kids at his school do but it's not like every single person has one.