Does your 4th grader have a phone? Why or why not?

[Anonymous]

iphone xr

[Anonymous]

Mine won't have phones til high school but the friends that do seem to use it the same way they use an iPad, texting about homework or reading.

I do feel people should lock their kids' phones down MUCH more than they realize. The porn, violence and twisted videos they stumble upon online is *not* the same as the magazines that floated around when we were kids.

[Anonymous]

Our 5th grade DD does not have a phone, and just a few people I know have given their kids phones. The great majority of her group does not have one and is also not in a rush to get one.

All I hear about once they get a phone is the Group Chats. Based on what parents tell me and the one extreme case of bullying that came out of that with a friend's then 6th grader, I'm in no rush at all.

[Anonymous]

Mine did not. They had no need of one at that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my kindergartner is lobbying for a phone and claims that many of her classmates have them.

They can barely go thru the school day without losing their lunch boxers, water bottles etc. Maybe your kid is saying they have phone at home? My K kid has an old android phone he uses to connect on WiFi and watch games etc we don’t have a iPad. It doesn’t have cell service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader has a verizon gizmo. Why? Because I want him to. Mine does call us.

Yip. My 3rd grader has one ans so do a few of his friends. They call each other to make plans and my kid calls me for various reasons (to skip aftercare, when he is ready to get picked up from aftercare, when he arrives at a friends house) he uses his watch phone daily. I also use lt for location tracking. I allow my kid to go about a half mile range from the house on his bike. This allows me to easily find him whenever I need him home or I need him to check in.

I have no idea what musicly is. But whatever it is I dont care. There are no apps you can add to his phone. It is physically impossible.

This mentality is staggering to me.

Thankfully, my 4th grader is in a school where maybe 1 kid in his class has a phone. There is virtually NO reason (maybe if your DC is a latch-key kid) for a 3rd or 4th grader to have a phone.

[Anonymous]

Why would a 4th grader need a phone? Are parents that lazy these days where they don't want to put the effort into parenting? I'm guessing these same parents are the ones that let their kid vegg out at dinner out on a phone so that Mommy and Daddy can have a quiet drink.

OP, please don't do it if "everyone else is doing it". For God's sake, be a parent.

[Anonymous]

My 5th grader got a hand-me-down, second-generation Android last spring and promptly dropped it and the screen shattered. Hasn't had another phone since to teach a lesson about taking care of one's phone. May get a new one for Xmas. Has a tablet, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kindergartner is lobbying for a phone and claims that many of her classmates have them.

They can barely go thru the school day without losing their lunch boxers, water bottles etc. Maybe your kid is saying they have phone at home? My K kid has an old android phone he uses to connect on WiFi and watch games etc we don’t have a iPad. It doesn’t have cell service.

This is what I've told her. she's lost her lunch box and gloves about three times since the lobbying began. she swears she won't lose it. lol. it started out as i should get one now so that she can use it when she's in 5th grade. i tried to explain why that made no sense - technology changes, etc. then it turned to "well xx has one". ugh. i hate to disappoint her, i really do, but this time it has to be a no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would a 4th grader need a phone? Are parents that lazy these days where they don't want to put the effort into parenting? I'm guessing these same parents are the ones that let their kid vegg out at dinner out on a phone so that Mommy and Daddy can have a quiet drink.

OP, please don't do it if "everyone else is doing it". For God's sake, be a parent.

You are a sanctimonious asshole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our DD reports that a number of her classmates have a phone of some kind, and I can’t figure out why. Most of the kids that I know of aren’t using the phones to call their parents from this or that location, so what are they doing? Texting friends and going on Musical.ly? If your 10-year-old has a phone, what kind and why? If they do not as a conscious decision by you, why not? My DH is pretty annoyed by her request for a phone, like some of her friends have, and while I’m not annoyed I just can’t see the need.

Mine did for safety because of my ex’s mental health issues. It was not a smart phone.

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

Yes. Since 3rd. She’s in 5th now. Has never lost or broken it. We have no home phone. She walks home from school and can walk to a couple stores and friends houses. I can track her location. She has musical.ly. It’s an iPhone with excellent parental controls. The controls are locked with a PIN number only I know. It can only access websites that I manually enter.

IDGAF what y’all think about it it gives us peace of mind and she is very responsible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader has a verizon gizmo. Why? Because I want him to. Mine does call us.

Yip. My 3rd grader has one ans so do a few of his friends. They call each other to make plans and my kid calls me for various reasons (to skip aftercare, when he is ready to get picked up from aftercare, when he arrives at a friends house) he uses his watch phone daily. I also use lt for location tracking. I allow my kid to go about a half mile range from the house on his bike. This allows me to easily find him whenever I need him home or I need him to check in.

I have no idea what musicly is. But whatever it is I dont care. There are no apps you can add to his phone. It is physically impossible.

This mentality is staggering to me.

Thankfully, my 4th grader is in a school where maybe 1 kid in his class has a phone. There is virtually NO reason (maybe if your DC is a latch-key kid) for a 3rd or 4th grader to have a phone.

Me too. I want to move somewhere where kids don't have cellphones and don't spend all their free time either at organized activities or on screens. Kids don't play anymore. Our neighborhood is a real bummer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My youngest had an iPhone when he was 10. An older sibling upgraded and he got the hand-me-down I never really thought of it as a big deal. Most 10 year olds have cell phones. I don’t see the phone as any different from any other piece of technology. It’s a tool.

Just curious for those of you who think it is no big deal to give your kids a phone, Do you set age restrictions on the phone for content or do you just give them a free for all? Do you set parental controls on your other devices? Or do you just let them figure it out and hope they don't stumble onto porn or other things????

I used the parental controls.