13yo feels left out without phone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well clearly she can't handle a phone so I'd tell her I'd think about it in another 3 or 6 months.

That’s not true. She finally got one and couldn’t hold back another minute. With the father being such an extreme person she might have problems with social media at an older age. It will be his fault.

Perhaps if she had stepmoms phone at home and was caught texting her friends. But that it wasn’t happen. She stole it and took it to school which is against the rules for school (and presumably where her friends are…), then had it out in class and was playing on social media. That’s blatant disrespect for rules that aren’t even her father’s, bad judgement, and has nothing to do with socializing with her friends.

[Anonymous]

Look up the wise phone or get some other model that doesn’t allow everything

[Anonymous]

I feel like all of these random "bad behavior plus bad spouse" creative posts lately are coming from some sort of AI troll. Anyone else feel this way?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like your husband makes all the rules, but if you have a home phone, her friends can call it and she can talk for hours on it like we used to in HS back in the day. If you don't have one, VOIP home phones are cheap.

Other alternative is a flip phone.

No reason to have a smart phone at 13, and definitely no reason it has to be an expensive iPhone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like all of these random "bad behavior plus bad spouse" creative posts lately are coming from some sort of AI troll. Anyone else feel this way?

Hmmm. And, amazingly, the "stepmom" has stopped commenting after this accusatory post was made.

[Anonymous]

Of course she is left out of everything social with no phone

[Anonymous]

I don’t know anyone whose 13 yr old doesn’t have a phone. You can limit social media and internet usage but it’s basically equivalent to us having the rotary house phone back in the day. This is how kids communicate nowadays. You’re preventing her from chatting/texting with friends after school and on the weekends. What do you expect them to do-walk to your house and knock on the door to hang out? They text each other. No one uses a landline to call anymore. Get with the times.

[Anonymous]

She and your husband together need to read The Amazing Generation. Kids don't need phones, they need friends. It's not about strict or not strict, it's not about cool or not cool, it's about connection. Or as Jonathan Haidt says - it's about friendship, freedom, and fun. Cell phones are ruining teenagers' lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know anyone whose 13 yr old doesn’t have a phone. You can limit social media and internet usage but it’s basically equivalent to us having the rotary house phone back in the day. This is how kids communicate nowadays. You’re preventing her from chatting/texting with friends after school and on the weekends. What do you expect them to do-walk to your house and knock on the door to hang out? They text each other. No one uses a landline to call anymore. Get with the times.

My 13 year old doesn't have a phone. She DOES have an Apple Watch. She can text and call her friends, but she doesn't. Instead, they actually hang out. And yes, PP, they DO walk to our house and knock the door to hang out. My daughter and her friends have a true 80s childhood going on. I'm sorry your child can't have friends without her phone. That's really sad for her.