Does your riding 6th grader in public school have a phone?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| FCPS public school. She has one and so do most of her friends. None of them need it and she won’t be taking it to school next year. It’s been helpful for us, the parents, when they have been out this summer and want to coordinate when to get picked up. It’s our convenience and most are not the oldest child so our standards are relaxed. |
Anonymous
| Rising 6th grader, yes we are getting her one in a couple weeks. She will be walking to school, so I want her to be able to tell us if she is staying for afterschool activities or coming home. Parents are divorced, so we are ready for her to text us directly about stuff rather than telling one parent to tell the other parent. And, I'm ready for her to start reaching out to friends directly to make plans. She will not be allowed to have any social media apps on her phone. |
Anonymous
|
We got our 6th grader one about halfway through the school last year — with critical factors being we have no home phone, he rides the bus, and our offices were threatening to have us return to the office from remote work.
Honestly, wish we had waited another year or gone the apple watch route. |
Anonymous
|
Mine did not. We planned on 8th. She's now going into 7th and honestly we're likely getting her a phone within the year, because
- she's started babysitting a little and the neighbors don't all have landlines - she's allowed to pick up younger sibling from dismissal and younger sibling has permission to be picked up by older sibling, but it's not an everyday thing; I'd like to be able to reach her on her phone at the end of the day if I need them to walk home together. Otherwise, older often stays late with some friends and then walks home with someone and I walk home with my younger one - because she started doing pet care and babysitting jobs, people are paying me on Venmo and then I'm giving her cash; we're planning to get her one of those Chase Youth Accounts soon and want her to be able to receive electronic transfers from us and pay with her phone |
Anonymous
|
Yes we got ours one and it was very locked down for most of 6th. He is a walker.
He used it a lot to make plans after school and to coordinate plans with friends. It does allow you to give them a lot more independence in general. |
Anonymous
| Yes, mine does. |
Anonymous
|
My 6th grade daughter did not have a phone last year (she's a rising 7th grader still without a phone). She is a definitely an exception (and unhappy about it!!) We have one phone at home for our kids to use if they are headed somewhere on their own, and we want them to have it to call us. But it has limits on it, and can't be used for much other than calls.
I have definitely noticed that she's left out sometimes for social events - the kids definitely coordinate that way, and the parents aren't organizing that stuff like they did when we were 12. She can text from her ipad, though, which we allow for that type of communication. The ipad doesn't leave our house. We have a rising 5th grader and 2nd grader, and I've seen kids in their classes with phones too. Shocking to me, but it's the new reality, I guess. |
Anonymous
| No- not until high school |
Anonymous
| My rising 7th grader DD doesn’t have a phone or tablet. Just the school issued chrome book during the school year. We have a family iPad and desktop computer. |
Anonymous
|
Yes - that's how all the kids in this area plan to meet up. They are at the age where they plan their own meet ups - and they do it by text.
If you kid doesn't have a phone, how to they meet up with their friends? |
Anonymous
How does the child make plans? |
Anonymous
|
DD started middle school in sixth grade and rides the Metro. We got her an Apple Watch. The entire year, she has been asking for a phone, she says all her classmates have one, don't know if that's technically true, but most do. One kid lost hers by leaving it on the Metro.
I've been holding out, but may give in around her birthday this year. The biggest issue is that kids coordinate plans on their phones. But I don't want her glued to her phone when she is on public transporation, or worse, walking around the city. |
Anonymous
| No, my rising 7th grader doesn’t. Most of his friends are in the neighborhood so he makes plans with them in person. |
Anonymous
You wouldn't be saying that if your kid was on lockdown in a classroom and you got to speak with them one last time because they had a cell phone. Also, a friend of my parents, their granddaughter passed unexpectedly. They contacted my parents because they know I do digital forensics work and have the software to bypass pin codes to get into phones. The mom thought she knew her daughter's pin but she had changed it. Anyway, unlocking the phone was unlocking a whole world for the parents and grandparents. They had access to thousands of photos she'd taken, videos, drafts in her Instagram and TikTok accounts, all the text messages between friends, notes, etc. That mom had been on the fence about letting her daughter have a phone before 8th grade but in the end, what she got from the phone made her change her mind and she bought her 5th and 6th graders phones the next day. All of my kids got a phone the summer before 6th grade. That's when most of their friends did as well. Some got them in 5th grade, too. |
Anonymous
| Yes she has one |