Cell phones are ubiquitous these days.  It seems like everyone's got one from the 80-year-old grandma down the street to the 10-year-old kid of your next-door neighbor.  Now your 16-year-old kid wants one, and you're not sure how to proceed.  After all, mobile phones can keep your teens in touch, but they are also a big responsibility (and can be expensive).  MSNBC's parenting blog gives tips on how to ease your child into cell phone ownership:


If the youngster handles your cell phone appropriately — using it only to contact necessary adults — consider allowing the child to have his or her own phone with a small amount of voice minutes or text capability each month.

Other good tips include learning about the new phone together, using available parental controls, and discussing courteous mobile phone use.



Does your kid have a cell phone?




Showing the Latest of 3 Comments

sania
3 yearss ago
My *3 year old* knows how to completely handle my iPhone. She'll watch youtube videos and play a Spongebob game, easily navigating to where she needs to go. She'll ask for it when we're driving and will entertain herself for about 30 minutes. I'm amazed at how much is available for her to learn at 3 - certainly more than what was available to her parents at this age. That being said, I know the older she gets, the more we'll need to monitor what she's actually doing on the phone. Phones like the iPhone, Pre, Android, etc are quite advanced, and offer many of the services parents monitor on the PC.
 
BuenoBaby
3 yearss ago
My 11 year old had a cell phone, until I decided that along with keeping track of all my own crap-o-la I had no more room in my short term memory bank to remember where her phone was, or if it needed to be charged. Now I ask myself again, “why did she have a cell phone in the first place”? Yeah o.k. it was part of some kind of “family plan” thing and yeah, if practice let out early we could be alerted via cell within nano seconds. A child with a cell phone is about as convenient to her parents as a child with pierced ears. Twist, clean, change earrings. Find phone, charge phone, monitor phone bill. www.buenobaby.com
 
momom02
3 yearss ago
I just bought my 10 yr. old daughter a TracFone. Best present I ever got her. Now, we're more in touch than ever...especially in the summer when she's busy hanging out with friends. Believe it or not, we actually got closer since we now text back and forth. Plus she thinks I'm a cool mom :) And, b/c it's prepaid, I never have to worry about the astronomical phone bills I hear about from friends. And...she learns to budget her cell time!