Your kid shouldn’t be friends with kids who are on Snapchat at night. They are losers with idiotic parents.

My kid turns in her phone at 10:30 and goes right to bed. They have a late start school and only need to get up at 8:15 so they are still getting the sleep they need.

Think some of the people responding have younger kids.

8th grader here. 9:30/10 in my house. Many times my kid doesn't get in from practice until after 9 so it gives time to catch up with friends, coordination outfits before school in the morning.

Even if I tried to get my kid to bed before 10 they cant fall asleep. My kid gets up at 630. Something is very wrong with school start times for this age group.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your 8th grader has a phone? That's the 1st mistake. 9:30-10 lights out.

Spoken like a true parent of a 17 year old who gets blackout drunk and has sex with a 20 year old the first time she sneaks away from mom.

Or, you know, like the mom of a kid that is up super early. Only stupid people give phones to 8th graders. Ask the people that invented them if their kids have smartphones?

So 90% of parents are stupid people. Okay.

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe any of you that are saying kids don't need phones until 9th have kids over the age of 4.

My oldest is in 8th, and getting one at the end of the school year.

Our rule was 9 pm for 8th grade and maybe you can compromise and give later on weekends?

I want to say to say, somewhat perhaps unpopularly, that our rule for high school (starting summer after 8th) was that they could have phones when they wanted and have no bedtime (though phones were still charged downstairs). We felt like our kids needed time to learn to self-regulate before college.

Once they knew that, 8th grade was a bit easier, but 9th was difficult for at least one of mine before he figured it out.

Now one in college and one graduated college and everyone is pretty mature and doing well.

9pm or whenever they get home from practice, and my 8th grader doesn’t use snap. What’s wrong with you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your 8th grader has a phone? That's the 1st mistake. 9:30-10 lights out.

Spoken like a true parent of a 17 year old who gets blackout drunk and has sex with a 20 year old the first time she sneaks away from mom.

Or, you know, like the mom of a kid that is up super early. Only stupid people give phones to 8th graders. Ask the people that invented them if their kids have smartphones?

Anonymous wrote:Try to do 9pm phone, 9:30pm bed but sometimes it's 9:30/10pm.

+1

Unfortunately my daughter has a friend who has access to her phone all night and doesn’t seem to sleep, so it’s a nightly issue to shut it down at 9 but we stick with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe any of you that are saying kids don't need phones until 9th have kids over the age of 4.

My child is in 9th and got his phone for his birthday in September. He and 2 other boys were the last hold outs in their circles, but it's possible.

That said, he has a 10pm bedtime, gets 8.5 hours of sleep. I think 9 is absurd for 8th grade.

I do think it's so strange that parents are like "oh, the science says kids need so much sleep, we have to do that" and they just ignore the science that says phones/screens are absolutely terrible for kids. and adults, for that matter.

I shouldn't be surprised, going to bed early = "me time" for mommy and daddy. Some parents are so selfish.

My kid's 'phone off' time is much earlier than bedtime so they can wind down / not have blue light interfere w/ sleep.

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe any of you that are saying kids don't need phones until 9th have kids over the age of 4.

My child is in 9th and got his phone for his birthday in September. He and 2 other boys were the last hold outs in their circles, but it's possible.

That said, he has a 10pm bedtime, gets 8.5 hours of sleep. I think 9 is absurd for 8th grade.

I do think it's so strange that parents are like "oh, the science says kids need so much sleep, we have to do that" and they just ignore the science that says phones/screens are absolutely terrible for kids. and adults, for that matter.

I shouldn't be surprised, going to bed early = "me time" for mommy and daddy. Some parents are so selfish.

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe any of you that are saying kids don't need phones until 9th have kids over the age of 4.

Right? All these perfect parents clustered here in this forum! We waited until 8th grade with both of our teens and we were the strictest of strict outliers.

I don't believe any of you that are saying kids don't need phones until 9th have kids over the age of 4.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8th graders shouldn't have phones at all.

17 should be the minimum age to have a smart phone.

That is bonkers. A kid who can drive in 2024 needs a smartphone.

I think it might not be the worst thing in the world to let her try 9:30 on Weds or Thurs nights and see how it goes.

As for the kids who are texting in the late hours, maybe they're doing it from other devices, not on the phone. I would routinely hear from my kid's friends' parents that they are strict with screens and then hear from my daughter about those same kids being on YouTube at all hours.

We're all busy. It's hard to keep track of everything all the time, even when our intentions are good.