Rising 7th grade daughter begging for an IPhone- WWYD?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Flip phone only. Mom of a 12yr old. So many of her friends have iPhones with Instagram, snap chat, and it is creepy. |
Anonymous
| Get her one. All the kids I know had a smartphone by 5th grade. |
Anonymous
| I didn't get an iPhone until I was 40!!! |
Anonymous
Me too  . But I learn to type on a typewriter: Most of these kids have never seen a typewriter.
|
Anonymous
I didn't get a computer until I was 29!!! My child won't have a computer until they're 29!!!! |
Anonymous
|
I would get it for her, for her 13th birthday. My son had two classmates in 1st grade last year who had iphones. Almost all kids I know have them in middle school. So to me, you've held out really long. And that's impressive.
This all assumes it's not too expensive for you. I got my step daughters iphone 4s for $1 each last year (the kids were 14 and 17). And we have a family plan through ATT where we share data. It didn't cost too much extra to add them. Better to do it now, IMO, and help teach her to use it responsibly, than to wait until high school where you have less oversight of her. I don't know about parental control apps, but I drilled it into my step kids' heads that you don't use your phone for anything you wouldn't want the 4 Ps to see: 1) Parents 2) Police 3) Principal 4) Pedophile Because they "will" see it. |
Anonymous
What lala land are you living in? Do your kids go to some over the top rich persons' school like Sidwell? |
Anonymous
Really? That surprises you around here? |
Anonymous
You are oblivious if you don't have parent controls on it. There are so many apps that hides things on their phone and snapchat is a pic that only lasts 30 seconds after you send it. Most of the middle school kids use it to sext. It is amazing working at a school and what you hear. If you have no parent control all you did was give in earlier than high school. You aren't teaching her responsibility. |
Anonymous
This is total BS and even if so, a horrible way of parenting. Daughter says, "But mom everyone has one." Mom says "They do? I am so sorry. I didn't know that. Let's run out right now and get one!!" Is this how DC Metro parenting works? |
Anonymous
|
We have a family plan with AT & T-4 lines $160.
Your daughter sounds very responsible. Our kids use their phones as ipods as well. So we don't have to buy that as well. We have discussed many times appropriate use of the phone, texts, etc. Our kids understand that if is borken, they will not have their phones. For teens today, the phone is the way they communicate. No one calls a house phone to talk to a kid. They send texts, snap chats, message in facebook. It is not just the "fast" kids. Monitor the use and if she uses it inappropriatelythen take it away. Giving teens some independance along the way gives them the chance to learn how to deal with it. |
Anonymous
No but you also have to be aware on ow kids interact and try to balance that with "we don't do whatver else is doing" MS is tough and if there are some things that make it easieer for a kid to feel more confident, what is so bad. And no, I don't believe in tattoos or belly rings. A phone is a communciation tool, no different than a computer. |
Anonymous
| It's up to you I guess. But so many working adults who don't have any fancy cell phones out there... |
Anonymous
|
If you think she is generally mature (not sure she is since she's begging), go ahead. One more rule:
"If the phone is lost, stolen, or damaged beyond repair, you pay for the replacement" (approx. 700). I also suggest a rugged case. She WILL drop it. |
Anonymous
|
What I would do is say, "No, you don't need it, and we're not paying for it."
But then I have a flip phone. |