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Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

No one is saying you shouldn't gossip, but you have the rest of your day and weekends to do it. How bizarre.

And I'm saying I have yet to hear a good reason why you should decide for me and my kids when we communicate. There is nothing bizarre about this.

The good reason is that they are trying to learn at school and you’re interrupting it

Sigh. Can we stay focused on what this conversation is about? No one is saying phones should be out during instructional time. That's about 3 hours of the school day. Further, no one is saying the whole rest of the day should be spent on phones. Rather, I am saying that we don't have a good reason for bell-to-bell expensive phone jail when there is a calibrated middle ground of putting away phones most of the time with reasonable exceptions. That is supportable but the extreme policy of Yondr is not.

We do. You disagree with it but others think that phones do not belong at school at all, at any time.

Are you one of those families who goes out to eat at a restaurant and you are all looking at your phones? About 25% of restaurant patrons look like this nowadays.

Pitiful.

Just buy your kid a decoy phone to send for the pouch. That's what I did.

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Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

No one is saying you shouldn't gossip, but you have the rest of your day and weekends to do it. How bizarre.

And I'm saying I have yet to hear a good reason why you should decide for me and my kids when we communicate. There is nothing bizarre about this.

The good reason is that they are trying to learn at school and you’re interrupting it

Sigh. Can we stay focused on what this conversation is about? No one is saying phones should be out during instructional time. That's about 3 hours of the school day. Further, no one is saying the whole rest of the day should be spent on phones. Rather, I am saying that we don't have a good reason for bell-to-bell expensive phone jail when there is a calibrated middle ground of putting away phones most of the time with reasonable exceptions. That is supportable but the extreme policy of Yondr is not.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

No one is saying you shouldn't gossip, but you have the rest of your day and weekends to do it. How bizarre.

And I'm saying I have yet to hear a good reason why you should decide for me and my kids when we communicate. There is nothing bizarre about this.

The good reason is that they are trying to learn at school and you’re interrupting it

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

No one is saying you shouldn't gossip, but you have the rest of your day and weekends to do it. How bizarre.

And I'm saying I have yet to hear a good reason why you should decide for me and my kids when we communicate. There is nothing bizarre about this.

The anxiety levels in students who are constantly worried they need to check in with mom and dad is wild. "I need to see if my mom is going to pick me up in the front or back of school." No, you can wait until the bell rings to check your phone. "I need to know if she is going grocery shopping today." Why? You can find out when you get home. "I need to tell her how Ms. X did something stupid in class." No, the story will still be funny at 3:15.

It is so much healthier for them to learn to tune out the outside world and focus on the world in front of them instead of constantly trying to be in multiple situations at once.

(I'll return your book recommendation with "the anxious generation"--if you read that and still believe your child needs access to their phone during the day, I can't help you. It is a damning report of the impact of phones on youth. https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036 )

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

No one is saying you shouldn't gossip, but you have the rest of your day and weekends to do it. How bizarre.

And I'm saying I have yet to hear a good reason why you should decide for me and my kids when we communicate. There is nothing bizarre about this.

Teens really should be communicating with their peers rather than their parents throughout their day. It is a big part of growing up and maturing.

Don't infantilize your children because of your own insecurity.

I'm not sure what you are picturing but I am simply asking the school not to get in the way of appropriate communications between a parent and kid. This is not instead of peer communication. Trying to paint normal, healthy communication with a parent and a kid as somehow dysfunctional because it might happen during school hours is a baseless logical leap, and a rather odd place to take the conversation under the circumstances. According to the Yondr-branded-FCPS-presented Powerpoint we were given, the harm being rectified here is depression and suicide caused by phones. The color commentary was that social media interaction with peers is causing mental health issues. Now, somehow, you're arguing that what kids really need is less parents, more peers? And that cutting off communication between parents and children during school hours is part of the solution? Are you also saying that all the toxic things kids do can only happen via phone and not in person or on a laptop? None of this holds together to justify these silly expensive pouches.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

No one is saying you shouldn't gossip, but you have the rest of your day and weekends to do it. How bizarre.

And I'm saying I have yet to hear a good reason why you should decide for me and my kids when we communicate. There is nothing bizarre about this.

Teens really should be communicating with their peers rather than their parents throughout their day. It is a big part of growing up and maturing.

Don't infantilize your children because of your own insecurity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

No one is saying you shouldn't gossip, but you have the rest of your day and weekends to do it. How bizarre.

And I'm saying I have yet to hear a good reason why you should decide for me and my kids when we communicate. There is nothing bizarre about this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

No one is saying you shouldn't gossip, but you have the rest of your day and weekends to do it. How bizarre.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

Your children need to be gossiping with their peers, not their mom.

+1

This is why no phones at lunch is just as important as no phones in class. There are many lessons to be learned in school, some in the classroom, some outside the classroom.

Appreciate the parenting advice, folks, but I didn't say my kids talk to me instead of their friends. There is time for both. I am just confused on why you are advocating that cutting off communication with parents is a good thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

Your children need to be gossiping with their peers, not their mom.

+1

This is why no phones at lunch is just as important as no phones in class. There are many lessons to be learned in school, some in the classroom, some outside the classroom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

Your children need to be gossiping with their peers, not their mom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

Because your child should be focusing on school during the workday not catching up on what Aunt Jane said about the guy next door who has cancer. Similarly, your husband should be working instead of chatting away with you all day. I definitely do not text people all day long during the workday (and neither do my relatives/friends/acquaintances - I mean, sometimes my retired parents forget that I'm working and send me a text in the middle of the day, but we're chatting away regularly, they ask a question, maybe I will respond when I have a minute). Your interactions throughout the day aren't normal unless none of you have jobs.

Incorrect. Some suggested reading: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Given that you structure your life to minimize the annoyances of human interaction, you should have time. but in case you're not the reading sort, I'll sum up. Homo sapiens are social animals and our ability to gossip and social is key to survival and reproduction. "It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat." Put anther way, gossip separates us from the apes. It is not just normal, it is what makes us human.

I really don't know how you all survived through middle and high school yourselves without constant contact with your own parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fully support a no phone policy and ask that schools enforce it. Up to them how to do it but there is no place for them during the school day, at all. I don’t want to hear the whining from admins. If the pouch makes them stop whining, fine.

Aren’t the admins now going to be tasked as the messengers going between kids and parents that can’t communicate directly? Strikes me as a lot more work for admins than before.

Most messages do not really need communicated mid day. Plan ahead.

Interesting how the talking points evolve. First, it was don’t worry about communicating with your kid because you can just communicate through the front office. So, now it is, actually what you have to say to your kid or your kid has to say to you is not all that important in our view so no need to communicate at all.

No, I think the point was important messages can be communicated through the front office but there are only so many important messages. How often are you contacting your kid during the school day??

DS is in HS with the phone pockets in each class but when he was in MS, there was an "away for the day" rule. I never had to communicate anything to him the entire two years. One time he asked a teacher if he could use his phone to text me -- he was excited to have received the highest grade in the class on a test. The teacher said it was fine (and also messaged me through Talking Points to tell me a) he allowed the phone usage and b) to tell me how impressed he was with my kid's performance in his class.

DD is at a Yondr school and she thinks this is no big deal.

Your example is exactly why "away for the day" is better than Yondr. The teacher recognized that an exception was warranted; a pouch can't do that. I agree that most during-the-school-day communication is not urgent, but why is that the standard? We are we throwing supportive parent-child communication in with the basket of evils. It is a good thing to have a line of communication with your kid because there are non-urgent things (like sharing excitement over a test) that are important. Yes, they can wait, but no one has explained why they should. If the evils we're combatting are distraction and phone addiction, stopping normal, healthy communication doesn't advance the ball. It is just a side effect. Why tolerate negative side effects when there is a cheaper alternative without them? If we now have to prove there is an emergency to be allowed to talk to our kids, there should be a good reason, and there isn't.

Good lord, land that helicopter.

You are confused. A helicopter parent is one who is heavily engaged in engineering a child's life. Keeping in touch with a kid is normal, healthy parenting.

When it happens before/after school. It does not need to happen during. Let your kid have some space.

I communicate with my husband, my sister, my parents, my friends, and even my in-laws throughout the day when we're all working. The discussions hardly ever concern emergencies. I don't need to have all these conversations but they enrich all our lives. Why would my relationship with my kid be any different? Relationships are ongoing conversations. I'm confused as to why we are casting family communication as a bad thing.

I am pretty sure your kids' teachers would prefer their lives not be enriched during class. And the same probably goes for your employers.

Well, technically, I'm my own employer as a partner at my firm but I assure you the firm is perfectly happy with my performance and actually prefers that we all -- owners and employees alike -- maintain a work-life balance. As far as school goes, there are mountains of non-instructional time even when you don't count lunch and study hall. I am not suggesting that my kid text me during instructional time but I see no reason why a pouch should stand in the way when he is not actually getting instruction from a teacher.

You can maintain a work life balance without texting all day long. Really, lady, that is not normal. The only people that text me throughout the work day are people that I work with about work-related matters or my husband if he can't pick up the kids that afternoon.