Will and Joe are the most underprivileged 12 year olds on the planets: they do not have cell phones.
“ALL” of their classmates have them. It’s really sad, you should pity them.
Except! We had decided that this Christmas we’d finally cave and stop being so darned mean to our poor, deprived children.
Our wireless plan is a data plan, so any new phones would be $40 per month extra, each. $80 a month?? We are getting a 20% discount off that, but even still: we had no intention of spending an extra $64 per month for the boys to have phones.
But we had this great idea! We’d add them to my Mom’s account! As far as we could figure from the limited information available (have you ever tried to actually get good information from a wireless company’s website? good luck with that…), it seemed that it would only be $10 per month per basic phone.
Um, no. As it turns out, her plan is so old that we couldn’t just add, she’d have to upgrade to a new plan. I bet you can guess the difference between her new plan and the old one.
$80 per month.
And that was just for plain phones with texting. On our plan, they could have smartphones.
But apparently we are still major grinches, because even I cannot justify spending $720 a year for the boys to have phones that they will have a legitimate need for…maybe…once a month?
Sadly, until they start driving, Will and Joe will have to continue borrowing their friends’ phones to call home, and will have to suffer without access to text messaging at all hours of the day and night.
Somehow, I think they’ll manage.
FYI, We didn’t get Ashley a cell phone until her 15th birthday. Much to her chagrin from 10 – 14 LOL . Anyway, we got her a slider style phone for about $80 from Virgin Mobile and unlimited talk, text and internet for $25 a month. Radio Shack sells them. It was a good compromise, as the price for the phone was not outrageous (altho it’s not a touch screen, smart phone style) and the monthly plan at $25 unlimited everything was the cheapest out there. You might want to look into it. We also made her put aside $80 of her own money as an ‘insurance policy’ so that when she loses it, or breaks it, she can replace it herself (we told her we wouldn’t… we are the meanest parents in GA!! LOL) Have a wonderful holiday!!
My 12 yo son has a phone, but I refuse to buy him a smart phone because most of the time it isn’t charged. He used to keep it charged because he and his little sister walked home from school (the elementary) – he rarely walks home now.
I only pay $10 a month for a basic phone with text – that is all he gets.
I will probably get my daughter a phone after the new year because I am already paying for the line (a way we were able to upgrade to iphones right away before our renewal date) – she is only 8, but a lot of times she goes to a friends house and forgets what time it is – just an easier way for me to keep track of her (I will put the service where it pings me when she goes somewhere she isn’t supposed to). She is more responsible with stuff than her brother… even being 4 years younger.
If I only had a choice to buy them smartphones or nothing; I wouldn’t do it. I would be a mean parent too!
I completely agree with your decision! I don’t think kids under the age of 16 and driving need a phone with them 24/7! I feel it is distracting from reading time or just good wholesome outdoor play! Maybe I am getting opinionated in my older years but I see 6-8 year olds with phones and wonder where their paretns are. Shouldn’t a parent be near? I just don’t get it!!! Stick to your guns!!! Good parenting in my opinion!
You are NOT mean parents. You are perfectly logical! I heard somewhere recently that it’s good to keep cell phones away from kids until they reach age 16. BUT, it’s important that they learn how to handle technology “toys” and prove their responsibility. A cell phone comes at a great expense to your family. An email account, Facebook ability, etc. is basically free, and can be used for them to prove they can handle the responsibilities of technology. But it must be monitored by the parents, which means they need to give you full access to their account for monitoring. Do you have an iPad in the family? Perhaps that would be a good purchase for them to share… or a small laptop for their room that they can share.
Just my thoughts…
Suzanne I’m trying to contact you about the order that I made with you from your Knots and Bolts store. Would you please e-mail me.