Who regrets getting phone for their child at that 12-13 yr age and wishes they waited?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you whose middle school aged kids or older don't have phones - do you still have a landline? We don’t have a landline nor do most people we know - in the last kids would still have had phone access at home without a cell phone but now cell phones are our only phones. I wouldn’t be comfortable with kids being home alone without any phone or means of communication. In the past there was always a phone available. Now you need a cell phone at home to achieve the same thing.

Also since no one really uses landlines anymore, kids don’t know phone numbers. They know a couple but they don’t know most numbers, if they were out somewhere and needed help and asked a stranger to use their phone, they wouldn’t have that many people to try to call.

The world is different than it was 20 years ago. Communication technology is different and that means we can’t do things the same way we did before. There aren’t many public phone booths/ pay phones, people don’t have landlines or home phones, phone numbers aren’t readily available (no phone book).

Yes, we have one.

+1
We kept ours so that our kids had a way to call us, or grandparents, or 911 when we left them home alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you whose middle school aged kids or older don't have phones - do you still have a landline? We don’t have a landline nor do most people we know - in the last kids would still have had phone access at home without a cell phone but now cell phones are our only phones. I wouldn’t be comfortable with kids being home alone without any phone or means of communication. In the past there was always a phone available. Now you need a cell phone at home to achieve the same thing.

Also since no one really uses landlines anymore, kids don’t know phone numbers. They know a couple but they don’t know most numbers, if they were out somewhere and needed help and asked a stranger to use their phone, they wouldn’t have that many people to try to call.

The world is different than it was 20 years ago. Communication technology is different and that means we can’t do things the same way we did before. There aren’t many public phone booths/ pay phones, people don’t have landlines or home phones, phone numbers aren’t readily available (no phone book).

Yes, we have one.

+1
We kept ours so that our kids had a way to call us, or grandparents, or 911 when we left them home alone.

^^^ And if you don't have a landline, then just get your house a burner cell phone that can make calls. Keep it plugged in to one specific place with numbers written down or programmed in.

[Anonymous]

I have girls almost 18 and 15. Both have had phones since 6th grade. We have always had downtime settings and apps they couldn’t have or timers on certain apps (this has obviously evolved over time) and they charge in the kitchen but it honestly has been fine. They are good kids, good students, and I frankly haven’t had many issues. They show me their feeds and their friend’s feeds. It’s really pretty similar to my Facebook feed. I do feel like the drama about phones is somewhat overblown. I think some parents just don’t supervise it very well. Kids up to no good, or prone to mental health issues are not that way just because you gavethem a phone - it was likely going to manifest some other way.