Only very recently, children owning and using cell phones was considered a luxury that only rich, often spoiled, children were afforded. With the lowering cost of cell phones and cell service and the advent of “family plans”, more and more families are opting to buy their children cell phones, including my own family!
When I first mentioned to family that we were going to get a cell phone for the kids, they rolled their eyes, sighed, disgust pretty evident in their body language. Do we really think we are doing our kids a favor by buying them the latest and greatest gadgets? Aren’t they a little young? Why on earth would they need a cell phone? This is only going to create problems in school when the thing is used inappropriately.
These are all great questions and deserve consideration!
My original motivation for getting a cell phone is that I am just plain busy! Like a baby monitor that allows a parent to move freely through the house and yard without being out of touch from a sleeping infant, a cell phone allows my family to move freely through our schedules without the fear of being out of touch. After a decade of sitting patiently at sports practices, dance lessons or after school functions, my children are finally reaching the age where dropping them off on their own for these activities is acceptable. And now that it’s acceptable, it’s preferable as well! I can cram several errands or even some much-sought-after ME time into that two hours of soccer practice! But while away, thoughts and concerns never leave my mind. I’m not over-protective but I am a realist. What if it starts to rain and practice is cancelled? What if my son is injured? What if practice is going to last longer than anticipated? The natural answer, to me, was a cell phone! When I looked into our current phone plan and learned that we could add another line for only $10/month and share our minutes (which we never used up anyway) and also get a phone for free, it seemed like a no-brainer.
So far, it has worked out very well. The kids have only had infrequent need for the phone but when they have needed it, it has been reassuring to all of us. No one abuses the privilege but my kids are both young and not big on phone chat to begin with. When we got the phone we explained that it was to be used primarily as a communication tool between the parents and children to be shared, as needed, between all of them. We have found that the phone is handy not only for sending off with kids being dropped off at activities but also for kids heading out to play in the neighborhood or at local friends’ houses. Even when the kids were exploring in the woods or fishing at the lake, they were a quick ring away and on their way home for dinner.
A short while later, our oldest child, then 11, voiced a desire for his very own phone – one that he could use at will and would not have to share with his siblings. We considered this for awhile and finally agreed so long as he agreed to accept whatever free phone our provider was offering at the time and was willing to work a set job around the house to pay for his monthly bill. It isn’t hard for a kid to raise $10/month but we explained that even if he discovered he didn’t really get that much use out of his phone and didn’t want to keep it, he would still be contract-bound and required to continue working to pay his monthly bill until the two year contract ended. We decided to use the cell phone as a perfect segue into commitment and financial responsibility. This, too, has turned out well. What few bumps we have had along the way have been ironed out by removing the cell privilege for a short period of time (while he still had to continue paying the bill). These mistakes were quickly learned from and responsibility was applied.
We worried that having a cell phone at school might be a problem. I was interested to learn, recently, that the middle and high school in our district have a policy that cell phones are allowed on the premises provided they are not used during classroom time. Apparently the school recognizes the same value in cell phones that our family does. Our son has used his phone, on occasion, to call about forgotten lunches or after school plans.
He hasn’t used the phone as much as he anticipated but has gotten a fair amount of use out of it. He also is learning to take care of a valuable possession – probably his first major opportunity – knowing that if he looses or breaks the phone, he will still have to pay a monthly fee without any phone for quite a long time. It’s been a year and the phone is still always in his pocket! In the end, offering the cell phone has given our children a sense of independence while simultaneously offering them a more available method of communication with us. We can rest at ease and so can they. They are learning responsibility and we are just a phone call away!