At what age are my child's peers going to expect my kid to have a recent top of the line smartphone?

[Anonymous]

At no age, where we live. My kid is in high school, and none of her friends has a recent top of the line smart phone. Not even the ones whose parents are well-off. The ones with the newer (but not new) phones all got them because their parents got even newer ones.

[Anonymous]

It depends. My son is almost ten and I got him an iPod touch which is essentially an iPhone without the phone. Apart from the access close, he doesn't know any of the passwords - this I hold. I plan to replace my 5s this Christmas time. My next phone will probably become his when he goes to middle school in a year and half. But if there is no hand me down, he'd probably get a cheap dumb phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares. Be a parent. Mine is 12 and while we can afford it, it is something we will give a 6th grader.

He’s fine and happy. Who are these parents that are so concerned about popularity and keeping up with the Joneses?

This!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want your kid to be labeled and get ostracized, then by all means, make sure they have a hand me down phone.

Ostrcized.

Drama queen.

[Anonymous]

5th grade graduation.
Before that in our upper NW school the only kids who have them are the ones whose "parents are trying to make them cool" (so say my kids). And hand-me downs are FINE.

[Anonymous]

My friend's 6th grade girl has been teased on the bus for not having the latest cell phone, and not having a data plan.

My 7th grade son has no phone at all. He is not teased, but then he has a very small circle of friends and doesn't take the bus.

[Anonymous]

My kids never had peer pressure for a top of the line smart phone. Old hand me down versions have always been fine.

[Anonymous]

When I say so. And your kid can just call the others Sheeple if they tease him. They can look it up on their smartphones.

[Anonymous]

Hasn't technology reached the point where kids should be able to browse the web and make telephone calls from their $200 basketball sneakers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want your kid to be labeled and get ostracized, then by all means, make sure they have a hand me down phone.

Ostrcized.

Drama queen.

Are the kids back on DCUM? Or is OP’s child often the subject of ridicule? Does anyone even care about this anymore?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares. Be a parent. Mine is 12 and while we can afford it, it is something we will give a 6th grader.

He’s fine and happy. Who are these parents that are so concerned about popularity and keeping up with the Joneses?

Sadly, in my experience, most of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want your kid to be labeled and get ostracized, then by all means, make sure they have a hand me down phone.

Your kid will be on opiods.

you teach your kid to have a backbone and that 'things' are just 'things'. The parents that give in to everything are doing their kids no benefit.

I have 2 neighbors that had to take away the smartphone in 8th grade. One was expelled for an instance directly tied to the smartphone. Another was on a chain of texts that resulted in a huge hoopla at the school.

My kids have 'flip-moded'. They are old school--non-social media and they are leaders at school and on the sports field.

Don't be lemming. Be a trendsetter. Raise your kid to have a backbone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To quote a comedian...

They ask "When can we expect payment?"
Uh, you can *expect* it whenever you want. Hell, if you get, call me, so that I can be surprised right along with you.

ok this got a real chuckle out of me

[Anonymous]

As a pp stated, it does depend on where you live, and this is one of the reasons why we chose not to live in a very wealthy area. Having stated that, DC got a motorola not-a-top-of-the-line-smartphone with no data plan in 6th grade, but DC paid for half of the cost with DC's saved up bday/xmas money. We were planning to get DC a dumbphone. We got DC the phone to contact us and vice versa, and not for data. Unlimited text comes with the call plan.

However, DC pays for the data plan with DC's allowance, which ends up being all of it for the month. The plan does gives credit for data not used for the month. This makes DC very careful about data usage outside our wireless range. Most of the time, DC gets some money back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a pp stated, it does depend on where you live, and this is one of the reasons why we chose not to live in a very wealthy area. Having stated that, DC got a motorola not-a-top-of-the-line-smartphone with no data plan in 6th grade, but DC paid for half of the cost with DC's saved up bday/xmas money. We were planning to get DC a dumbphone. We got DC the phone to contact us and vice versa, and not for data. Unlimited text comes with the call plan.

However, DC pays for the data plan with DC's allowance, which ends up being all of it for the month. The plan does gives credit for data not used for the month. This makes DC very careful about data usage outside our wireless range. Most of the time, DC gets some money back.

That sounds like a great approach. Kudos, PP above.