Reply to Latchkey kid: Can I ask 10 year old to text me when he gets on the bus or home?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yep, texting an affirmative "I'm home safely." sort of message works. When I started doing this with DS, I put the fear of God in him by telling him that if I didn't get this or a call, the cops were getting called. [/quote]

This the problem. Any normal person would occasionally forget to text upon arrival, and would sometimes have the phone at the bottom of the backpack where they wouldn't hear it ring.  This would be true even of an adult, and surely true of any well-adjusted kid.  By demanding a text every time, you are setting yourself up for extreme anxiety on those occasions when the kid forgets - or setting your kid up for extreme uptightness to make sure he/she is perfect 100 percent of the time.

And remember, kids walked to school and looked after themselves for many years before cell phones existed.[/quote]

If remembering to text causes extreme anxiety, then you have an anxious kid to begin with. And do you really believe that this request alone creates an upright kid? It is setting up a habit, unlike other habits we want our kids to cultivate. Again, if a kid occasionally forgets, just call them.

Sure kids used to walk home without cell phones. We all did, but I'm sure there were plenty of anxious parents. One of the cool things about technology is that we can apply it to make our lives easier. My kids will continue to text me, and I assure you they are perfectly well adjusted.[/quote]

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