My oldest DD, who is now 12 is asking for a cell phone....I always swore my kids wouldn't be allowed to have them, but she will be busy with sports, and the stupid school will not let them call from the office when plans change.....That is "supposed" to change this coming school year, after several parents complained after our kids were left outside unattended when they canceled a school dance.....(3 hours in the rain) But I'm thinking I would rather her have a phone so she could call on bus for away games and I could meet the bus when it gets there, instead of her calling once it gets there, and things like that......

Do your kids have cell phones? if they do what kind of a plan do you have? Are they prepaid?

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O-H-I-O

The kids in our family have Tracfones. They are the prepaid ones. They are to be used for calling home and emergencies only. They are NOT to give out the numbers to anyone. They have had them over a year with no problems.

Nicole has started pestering me for a phone for her 15th birthday. Sigh...

Holly

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Forgiveness is love in its most noble form. -Anonymous

If and when I do give my kids their phones, it will be prepaid or one of the phones that you can assign who can call the phone. They can only receive calls from that number (so your numbers) and can only dial out to those numbers (other than 911). So even if they give out their number, they can't receive the calls

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

My 13 year old has a phone from Kajeet. We got it free plus had close to $75 worth of talk time on it from doing surveys from them before they launched the service to the public.

It's 10 cents a minute, 5 cents for each text message and 35 cents per day. She doesn't use it much and if she does when it's out of time, she has to earn the money to put on it.

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Amy
Mom to Lauren, Eryn, Naysa
and announcing......
Gavin Michael Chase, 9 lbs 10 ozs
and 21 3/4 inches long on 10/13/09!

Well, I must be in the minority, because both of my kids got cells in middle school. However, they do have restrictions and my kids earn them with good grades and good behavior. My kids have had their cells for 3 and 5 years respectively. No problems. If your daughter is responsible, I don't see it would be a problem....as long as she knows rules and restrictions on the phone. If you have a cell plan, adding them on yours to a family plan is most likely the best way to go. Most plans let you add another line to your plan for about $10 a month...and with all the competition out there between companies, I am sure there are great family plan deals out there. You can, and should, ask for detailed monthly billing statements. These statements show number called, time of call, length of call. This gives you a way to monitor phone usage and make sure your rules are not abused. (i.e., my kids are not allowed phone calls at home after 9:00 on school nights--and same rules apply for cell phone usage.) You can block any phone number from getting or sending text messages, so if that is a concern, that is easily remedied and avoided up front.

Lots of things to thing on...but just base you decision on how much responsibility you think your DD can handle. Good luck with your decision.

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Our 10 year DD has her own cell phone. HOWEVER, this is only for when she is going off without us and we do let her chat when she is at home on the weekends. We have been with bellsouth that turned into cingular that turned into At&t for 7 years so we just added her to our phone plan. She has never abused the privilige and she does her job (school) with excellent results. I just don't see the problem with kids having a phone.....I don't think that a kids ear should be stuck to the phone every second of the day but, with this world changing as much as it is I think every kid should have one.

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Vicki


TLJ Women united in Spirit!

I started my son off last year (6th grade) w/ a TMobile prepaid cheapo phone. He's never misused his minutes or lost his phone, so this August we'll be adding him to our family plan and he can have my dh's flip phone as a reward for doing so well in school. I've never regretted him having a phone.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

Our 11 y/o DS has a cell. We added him to our plan. He cannot use it at home during the week. He uses the landline during the week. We have free weekends so he can talk all he wants on the weekends. We decided to get him one mainly b/c when sports practiced are cut short due to bad weather or whatever he can call us. The other BIG reason is he has a medical condition that requires immediate attention if he gets hurt. I must be contacted immediately so I can let the paramedics know the specifics. He abused it once, I took out the SIMS card for a week.....haven't had another problem.
You know your child better than anyone. Do you think the responsibility is too much?

Good luck with your decision.

Selena

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God is not Santa Claus

My 11 year old also got a cell phone from Kajeet to test. After the test I have kept money on his account. The phone comes in handy because I don't have a cell phone so when we go somewhere I make sure he brings his.

My 10 yr old dd got a phone just before school ended this year. The main reason is that my 3 yr old son will be starting PK at her school in the fall. They will be riding the bus together and I want her to alsways be able to get in touch w/someone when needed. I added her to my plan and she can use it free on night/weekends, which start at 7:00 pm w/Sprint plan we have. She can also call any other Sprint/Nextel for free. At first, I limited who she could call and who could call her. So far, she has been very responsible and the phone has been great for times she wants to go it alone w/friends(carnival, mpvies, etc.)

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Terri...mom to drama queen and the monkey-boy

Blessed are the parents who make their peace with spilled milk
and mud, for of such is the kingdom of childhood.

Both of my boys, 16 & 12, have cell phones. They are both prepaid. I do buy the 1 year card after that they buy the minutes. I also buy the first phone, a fairly cheap one. It is so convenient to get ahold of them. DS, 16, buys himself a new cell phone every 6 to 12 months. They haven't lost the phones or misused them as of yet.

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My 11 YO wants one and has been asking for one for a year now. However, I will not get her one. She doesn't do sports, after school programs. She is never allowed to go off w/o a adult / parent.. I see no need in her having one.As far as the School thing, You can't have a cell phone at ANY of the schools here, They will take them and not give them back till the parent comes to the school. Also. After being caught 3 times they will not give the phone back even to the parent. I understand and do respect this policy on no cells at school....

She at one time what that chat phone, However, the nearest friend to us that had one was over 5 miles away. It only reaches 2 miles and thats only if it's not blocked by trees, power plants ect, which we have all around us.

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MY 11 yr old DS has been asking for a phone. He does do sports after school during the year but he doesnt ever just chat with his buddies or anything. We will probably just get him an inexpensive trac phone. Im sure it wont get used much but he will be happy to just have it

My dd (12) got a cell phone prior to going into Junior High. We added her to our plan. She has never gone over the minutes. We did remove texting and the internet from our plan completely so there is no access. We do not want her using text messaging at school. Prior to removing texting her friends would text her all the time even though she and I asked them not to.

She has proven herself to be very reliable with her phone. I like the peace of mind.

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My dd who is 11 keeps asking me for a cell phone, it must be the age. What shocked me is how many kids in her class had one last year. She is going to be in 6th grade this coming school year and really wants a phone but the kicker is dad works at the school. I keep telling her if you have a problem go find dad! Plus I ask her how are you going to call?? She is never on the phone, odd for her age.

We did that beta test too and we love the service! I think they are available at Best Buy now aren't they? The only thing I don't like is the 35cents a day charge.

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"Let me watch my children grow to see what they become
Lord don't let that cold wind blow til I'm too old to die young'

No, you're not. We've got about the same situation here! As far as rules and restrictions, this has been a wonderful item to hold over 15 yr old DS'shead. He'd do just about anything to avoid getting his phone taken away! LOL!

My ds wants a cell phone also! But, he does about every sport out there. My hubby got him a new repaid phone ( he uses about 60 mins a year). So we kept his old phone active and it has like 400 mins on it. My son has gone a couple places that we let him use the old trac phone. But other than that, he won't be getting a regular cell phone till about 16. He can always use this one if he is going to be somewhere without one of us.

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We always said my daughter could get one when she's dating or driving. Well, she's doing neither, but she goes out with her friends a lot and I got tired of giving her mine. She got one for her 13th birthday. It was just $10 to add her to our plan. It's been wonderful. She has not abused it and has been very responsible. We did not get her texting, though. It's an extra $5 per month for 200 texts and told her she could add it on if she wanted to pay for it. She has chosen not to.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
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My baby is now 18 and has had a cell phone since she was 14. When she was able to pay for it on her own. Started out with prepaid then she moved to a plan because it was cheaper for her. She always has had unlimited texing. I also put foster daughter at the time on the same plan with dd. It was great, they could call each other for free. Since I was on a different service and was locked in a contract it was nice because I could just have who ever was with me call the other. Was also nice for when they missed the bus. And once the bus broke down and I wouldn't of known that if foster daughter did not have her cell. So I was able to go and get her and still make an appointment she had. If not for the cell I would not have known where the bus was and she would of missed apointment. I always watched thier minutes online to make sure they did not go over. Now both foster daughter and dd are 18 and I feel so much more comfortable when they are out working till midnight or 1 in the morning. that they have thier phones. I think if you teach them when and where they are to use the phone it is a really good thing.

wow I am thinking hard about getting my 8 year old a cell phone because she walks to school and hopefully next year she will help us pick up her little brother from school which he could be the problem.

All 4 of our kids have phones. We have a family plan with Verizon. The oldest is 17, 18 and 19 year olds pay for their $10.00 per month + any downloads that they do. The 10 year old, we pay her $10.00.

The 19 year old and I are the only ones who have txt. and pic. messeging. We have never gone over our minutes as a family as we can all talk free and my parents who are our closest relative and emergency people are also Verizon so we all talk free and if there is a problem with the kids and DH or I can't get to them, my parents usually can.

My 10 yo DD leaves her's at home most of the time unless she has a specific activity going on that we are both concerned about like Girl Scouts, after school stuff. I have to say, all but the 19 year old only cost us the $10.00/mo. She does tend to run about $30/ mo with ringtones, ringbacks and all but she has to pay for it when the bill comes.

We do use them. With 4 kids I wonder how we coordinated everything before we had them. I must have lost a couple of kids- maybe they are still waiting at a school for me to come pick them up!!!

Thanks so much for the responses......I think we will start out with a prepaid, and then if she does well add her on to our plan.

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

My kids are 10 and 7 and will not be getting a cell phone any time soon. Kidcoupon, does your 8 year old walk to school by herself? That's very young to be in charge of yourself and little brother, IMO.


Rebecca

We got this as a beta test too but never got any surveys for minutes. Do either of you remember where we got this through?

yes she does wlak to school and wedre lluckly that the school is also only a block away but still get a little worried if she does not come home after 15 min after school lets out.

Well I bought oldest dd 12 a tracphone for xmas this year then had her ask for mins for her bday which was in jan. she has about 300 mins on it & then my husband bought her a verizon last week against my wishes hes like well its only $10 a month to add her & he actually wanted a new phone for himself so he gave her his old one which btw was only 2 months old. All of her friends are on verizon & I told her no way was she getting it tell she had a job & could pay for it well low & behold he got one for her anyways.

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mom of 3 greats girls

When my oldest daughter was 16 (she is now 21), we ended up getting her a cell phone. The only reason we agreed to the idea was that she was working at a local Pizza Hut and had a customer who had made a pass at her and kept showing up and we were very concerned for her safety. We got it so she could call us when she arrived at work and when she left work. We made an agreement with her that we would pay for half and she would pay for the other half of the bill each month. She never went over her minutes.
Now...we have an 11 year old daughter and at this time there is no way I would get her a cell phone. She is too young. My dh and I just recently broke down and got our first cell phone and although it is nice to have, our main reason for getting it was to be able to keep in touch with the older daughter who moved hundreds of miles away. We are both Verizon customers so we can talk with her as much as we want, anytime we want and the minutes don't count against our plan.
I work at a local High School and its rare to find a student without a cell phone. The school rule is that the cell phones are not to be used at all during school hours or on school property. If they are caught using the cell phone it can be taken away from them until the end of the day. For the most part, this rule does not work very well! There are several pay phones and a phone in the office that they are allowed to use between classes and during lunch break.
My personal opinion is that if they are old enough to pay the cell phone bill, then its fine. Once they are working then there is more of a reason to need a cell phone...

OMG -- You need to immediately hand in your membership to the "I'm a better mother club." I am sure there is an emergency meeting of the board to discuss your horrible mothering at this very moment

My kids all walked a mile to school for a few years. When the oldest was 9, he was in charge of his 8 and 6 year old brothers. And, they all lived to tell the tale ......... imagine that Guess what, the oldest started driving everyone to school and bringing them home when he was 14 ... oh, the horror.

As to cell phones, we put each boy on our plan when they turned 16. That was when phones and plans got pretty cheap. We consider it their birthday gifts. The only rule is they can't go over the minutes and they have to answer when I call. They are 24, 23 and 21and we still have their phones on our plan. We have a sweet Spint deal and pay $78/month for 5 phones, more minutes than we can ever use and free internet and texting. We will probably pay those forever or until they decide they don't want to answer when I call

TRACFONE Nationwide Prepaid Wireless

Click on 'Buy Phones' at top.

At top, they have a refurb one with two 60 minute cards (6 months of service) -- nothing fancy but works great! It's what I use.

$19.99 plus shipping... around $25??? for phone and 6 months of service.

My boys do not have them yet but will when they start having friends who are driving or they drive... whichever comes first.

The site is kajeet - use it for good. . Good luck.

[quote=nightowlrn;2831769]OMG -- You need to immediately hand in your membership to the "I'm a better mother club." I am sure there is an emergency meeting of the board to discuss your horrible mothering at this very moment

She can keep her membership, yours has been revoked.

Rebecca, leader of the BMCofA

we got dd a cellphone for xmas. she is still working on her original minutes (phone came with 2 60 minute cards).

I didn't add both cards immediately... because I found codes for an additional 80 minutes when you add a 60 minute card... so in the end, her Tracphone had 280 minutes instead of 120.

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SPJRNTGADL!

All 3 of my kids have one. They are 14, 12 and 6

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~~~~**Maryann**~~~~

I just got a firm grip on reality....
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Amy
Mom to Lauren, Eryn, Naysa
and announcing......
Gavin Michael Chase, 9 lbs 10 ozs
and 21 3/4 inches long on 10/13/09!

A while back, there was a thread on 'text messaging' that might be interesting to some of you:

Kids and Text Messaging?

Sounds as thought this might be a good thing to disable on kids' cell phones before you give them to them???

My kids both have a cell phone - they are 6 and 9. I justed added freebie phones onto my account and upgraded to a family plan (verizon).

My 6 year old has a MIGO, which was verizon's response to the firefly...and my 9 year old has a Razr. It works out really well actually...I worked a deal w/ the school so that they can have them on them during the day as long as the ringer is off (scary ex and a no-contact order, so I insisted they have them so they could contact me).

We have free weekends and my 9 year old uses hers a LOT then, but otherwise they know they have to have permisson. It's been great. My 9 year old text messages my parents a lot and taught them how to respond.

I don't like the 35 cents a day either. It's funny how that 35 cents can eat up your minutes really fast. Oh well I can't complain too much because we enjoy the phone otherwise

My DD got her cell phone for her 13th birthday. She had been wanting one for awhile (about a year) but my DH thought she was too young. But, he wasn't sitting outside waiting for her at school, after color guard practice or dance either wondering why she was late. And, the few times I was running late, I had no way to get in touch with her or vice versa. The child makes straight A's and has many extra-curricular activities (the main reason for a phone for her-for me!). After telling her for months (and months) that she was too young (my DH told her she didn't need one until she turned 16 and was driving), I got a huge box and put paper from top to bottom and when she got to that small little box in the bottom of that big box, the look on her face was well-worth the $10 a month that we spend for her phone. She has never gone over on our minutes (we have the family share plan) and she mostly talks on it on the weekends (and night time over the summer so far). The way I look at is is this....She makes good grades and other than having a messy room ALL the time, she's a pretty good kid. I think for kids (at least for my DD friends), it HAVING the phone that's the big deal. For me, it's the fact that I can get in touch with her ALOT easier now when she is not with me.

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Mom to a beautiful 15 year old DD and my handsome little man who's 6!

~~~GO DALE JR!!~~~

My three sons ages 16, 12 and 9 all have them, My little guy just upgraded to a Razer Phone from a Firefly. I had them added to my family plan at seperate times. When I got around to adding the youngest it actually lowered my plan by $25 a month!

I would never buy the prepaid phone if I had a family plan option. Most cell phone companies give you a free phone and with Congular/ATT you even get free shipping when you order online and you get free upgrades every so often. We do not go over in minutes because just about everyone we know has Cingular/ATT. My entire extended family has it.

I did however have texting and internet disabled on all phones but mine. We have a ton of rollover minutes as well.

It gives me piece of mind to have them be able to call me whenever they need me.

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#3 Gone To Race In A Better Place...

I hate cell phones! OK, maybe I don't hate cell phones - the technology is awesome - but I hate the complete lack of etiquette and disregard of safety when it comes to cell phones. Call me old-fashioned....

Oh, that wasn't the question. My kids can have cell phones when they start to work and/or drive and having a cell phone would come in handy. So DS1 (17) has one, DS2 (13) does not. DS2 doesn't even beg too much.

cj/

My niece got one for her 7th birthday. It is the one that is prepaid through cingular (sp?). Everyone in the family has that- so her mom set it up that it only costs 1.00 every day she uses it as long as she calls someone in her network. It is also good when she goes someplace to stay the night so she can call her parents when she feels the need.

Over 1/2 of my fifth graders have a cellphone. Some parents want them to keep them with them at all times- but honestly that is such a pain! They are always afraid of it getting lost or broken. I had one student drop it from their pocket at recess time. Thank goodness I saw. My district made a rule this year that they have to go in their locker this school year.

None of our kids have cell phones. At this point they have no need for one and we really can't afford to get them. We have a 12yo, 9yo & almost 4yo. They are definately allowed to use the phones at school (I can't imagine a school not allowing it!) We have no landline phone so the kids can use our cell phones if they want/need to call someone while they're at home or out with us.

We have no problem with the kids having cell phones if a time comes where it would be needed or useful. Right now they don't go places that either we aren't with them or there isn't an adult who could help them or let them use their phone to call.

I love the idea I've read on here about the kids paying for their own phones. As I said, that is one reason they don't have them - the added cost. It would cost about $30/month more to add the two older kids.

peapie

The daily service charge amounts to about $130 a year plus minutes. It can be pricey.

I am curious, I know many parents are saying they need it for emergencies, etc, but in reality, does the child just end up talking to friends about...............really important stuff?

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

Well in my case, is for peace of mind. It does help knowing when my DS's are done with sports or band after school and events and need to be picked up.
Last February, my oldest DS had a wreck, totaled his car and his cell phone was used to contact me by a good samitarian. They have their uses. Now 2 out of 4 children use their phones to stay in contact with their friends, and when their phone is dead, they are on the landline constantly.

My daughter is grounded from the phone (poor grades last marking period). She ONLY uses her cell phone when she's away and needs to call home or something like that. I like the fact of her having it mainly so I can call her anytime. She knows I check the usage on the phone and that she WILL be in trouble if she's using it when she's not supposed to.

I really hate the kajeet daily charge. It wouldn't be so bad if they charged only on the days you use it, like the one cingular plan. We just dropped our second cell phone line and went to a T-Mobile prepaid for hubby. It was a better deal than the cingular one. We're still in limbo about which carrier I'm going to go with for mine. I'm w/cingular w/o a contract right now.

It might be cheaper to go w/a T-Mobile prepaid for my oldest. We're still thinking on that, too!

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Amy
Mom to Lauren, Eryn, Naysa
and announcing......
Gavin Michael Chase, 9 lbs 10 ozs
and 21 3/4 inches long on 10/13/09!