Kids Cell Phone - What age/why?

[4kids4karen]

My daughter got her cell phone when she was 8. Her older brother was 9 and didn't get one. My 8 year old little sister also has a cell phone. My younger sister has extreme allergies and her parents like her to be able to communicate with them. Teachers don't always let you use the phone. She only uses it during school hours to text her parents on breaks or if she feels like she is having an allergic reaction. She carries an epi-pen but my dad being an older parent is a worry wart. I was overseas for two years while my family was stateside. My daughter was always out with her competitive cheer team, their parents, etc. So she had a phone so my husband didn't have to constantly keep calling another parent to communicate with her. Also, she used it to text me overseas. But she also got her facebook and youtube channel at age 8 for the same reason to communicate with me.

 

[Pigeon]

We got ours phones when they started junior high. They are involved in a whole bunch of activites. I want them to call me after school and let me know how late they are staying--which bus to expect them to take. They also are often dropped off at rehearsals and practices and need a way to contact us. There are no pay phones anywhere they go.

And like it or not, texting is the way kids communicate. As a pp said, not having one is social suicide, and they will get left out of things. It's not intentional, it just happens. Their friends do not pick up a phone and call somebody's house phone, much as I might wish they would.

It's also the way a lot of the leaders of the activities communicate. If orchestra practice is cancelled, the conductor texts the kids. She doesn't pick up the phone and call them.

I'm not a fan of all the texting, but I see with my kids that the ones without phones don't get included in stuff.

My kids currently have Virgin Mobile pay as you go $35/month plans, which include 300 minutes of talk, unlimited texting and data. We have a land line.

 

[MrsPete]

Our oldest got a phone when she started middle school -- that seems to be "the age", at least in this area.

Our youngest got hers a year earlier, but for an odd reason: We had a problem with our plumbing, and in the process our phone lines were ruined. Rather than pay to have them fixed, we became an all-cell family. We'd been planning to do it anyway, but the problem with the phone lines made it happen sooner rather than later.

Four basic cell phones are less expensive for us than our other alternatives.

 

[jensen]

I appreciate all of the responses I've gotten here. It really does seem that kids are getting them for parents convenience and I completely understand that. Of the friends I polled, they all said something similar. They got it for the child because they wanted to be able to get ahold of them.

I did visit again with my son. Of his three best friends, one has a cell, one an iPod touch and the other has nothing. Our land line rings constantly at night and while we are gone the caller ID is filled with calls from his friends. So, I don't think he's missing out on anything, yet.

I also asked my 9YO DD and she said no one in her class has a cell phone.

Their school is VERY strict about cell phones. If they are caught with one during school hours, it is taken away and the parents have to come pick it up.

So, I'm in no hurry to get him one. Maybe next year when he enters Jr High...

 

[angwill]

Because all my friends have one doesn't fly around here.

My son got a cell phone in 7th grade because he was in sports and IMO it is unfair to expect others to share their cell phone minutes so he can call for a ride when he needs one. Our schools, library, pool etc do not have a pay phone like they had when we were young and the offices are not always open to ask if they can use the main phone.

Now my son texts everyone including me so a $20 unlimited text and limited minutes works for him. When he gets a job if he wants a better plan and phone he can buy one himself.

 

[badblackpug]

6th grade, the beginning of middle school here, because they are now doing things where parents aren't present at all times, and, honestly, it is a social thing.

My daughter is 15, I can honestly tell you the only people that actually call her phone are us and her grandmother.

 

[Kae]

My kids were 10 when they got them. They walk or ride their bikes to school, they go to friends houses & play in the neighborhood. Plus DS has Soccer & DD does alot of things at the theater I did not stay at their practices & pick up times can change. If I am using them for my own " convenience" then so be it.

Kae

 

[BabyTigger99]

DS got his the end of 4th grade. I was just getting off maternity leave with my youngest, so he was walking home from school everyday while I was at home. He didn't want to go back to the afterschool program, so I bought him a Tracfone to carry with him. He barely used it, but it was piece of mind for me. When we moved to our current home when he was in 5th grade, we dropped our land line, and added DS to our cell phone plan. He is a texter, that is for sure, but that is how the kids keep in contact. He wants to upgrade to an iPhone, but I told him he has to come up with a year's worth of payment for a data plan for that. Needless to say, he is planning on reffing a lot of soccer games this summer!