Cell phone for a second grader

Prepaid, prepaid, prepaid. If they use up the minutes or set amount,
the phone won't work until more $$ are added to it. I'd never
consider giving a pre-teen a cellphone that can have the bill racked
up like that.

but as it costs to receive calls in the US, if you're out of cash on the
phone you can't receive anything, which means if you're relying on the
phone to contact the child you could easily get in a mess. We've found
this hard to get used to, other places I've lived, receiving calls on a
cell phone is free, you could be out of minutes, but still contactable.
I'm not sure I'd be trusting a 7 year old to warn in advance of needing
a refill.

Cheers
Anne

Anne Rogers wrote in
:


Prepaid, prepaid, prepaid. If they use up the minutes or
set amount, the phone won't work until more $$ are added
to it. I'd never consider giving a pre-teen a cellphone
that can have the bill racked up like that.

but as it costs to receive calls in the US, if you're out
of cash on the phone you can't receive anything, which
means if you're relying on the phone to contact the child
you could easily get in a mess. We've found this hard to
get used to, other places I've lived, receiving calls on a
cell phone is free, you could be out of minutes, but still
contactable. I'm not sure I'd be trusting a 7 year old to
warn in advance of needing a refill.

must be your service. we aren't charged for incoming calls on
Tom's cell phone.
lee

Donna Metler wrote:
"Laura Faussone" wrote in message
...
Donna Metler wrote:
How many activities is a 2nd grade involved in where the parent isn't
going to be taking them and picking them up (or arranging a carpool to do
so?)

Not that I think a 2nd grader *needs* a phone, but ...
What if the picking-up parent is unavoidably and unexpectedly delayed due
to traffic or a flat tire?

Which is why the group sponsor or teacher or parent at who's house the
playdate is taking place needs a phone-not why each child needs one.

I don't see that a child NEEDS a cell phone until they're doing things
completely independently, and I am hard pressed to imagine many situations
where this would happen for a 7 yr old. 11 or 12 yr old, maybe, teenager who
is starting to drive and who has friends who drive, sure, given that
payphones are largely nonexistent now.

I don't see this as a reason why a child should *not* have a cell phone.

There are cell phones made just for kids like these:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16044093/ (I have no connection to MSN or
any of the cell phone companies.)

By using the Chaperone service, you can tell where you kid is. For
example, if dad is supposed to pick up junior at school at 3:00 PM, you
can check at 3:15 PM and see if Jr.'s phone is still at school. If at
3:30, Jr. has a play date at the neighbor's down the street, you can see
if the phone made it.

And, with some of the services, you can see if the phone leaves a
designated area, like a 1/2 mile area around the school and your home.

BTW, I wasn't joking when I said that the phone made the play date. If
Jr. leaves the phone at home, at school or on the school bus, the phone
won't do much good.

Is it worth a couple hundred bucks a year for this? For some people,
absolutely! For others, why bother.

Jeff

On Sep 10, 10:42 am, Banty wrote:
In article , Beth Kevles
says...

Arrgh.

Mr. Dean?

Why does a seven year old need a cell phone?

"Why [can't *I* imagine] a seven year old need[ing] a cell phone?"

(Fixed that for you)

Probably because you aren't in the same environment. Both my wife and
I work. My mother-in-law watches the kids. There is no public bus
system here. That means moms, dads, grandparents, and nannies pick up
the children. Through it all, my son was left at school
accidentally.

Besides laminated safety numbers and a lot of discussions with my
child on what to do if he gets separated from adults, I think a cell
phone would help in that situation quite a bit. In fact, it seems the
perfect use for a cell phone.

Anne Rogers wrote:


Prepaid, prepaid, prepaid. If they use up the minutes or set amount,
the phone won't work until more $$ are added to it. I'd never
consider giving a pre-teen a cellphone that can have the bill racked
up like that.

but as it costs to receive calls in the US,

None of the cell phones I've had for the last 6 or 8 years have
charged to receive calls, and on all of them a 911 call is free.

My mom used to have a bag phone (probably Sprint) which was in her car
and she was charged when people called her even when she wasn't in the
car and didn't answer, but that hasn't been true for some time - at
least not here.

So don't get a service that charges to receive calls.

My dd#2 gave her nanny a phone to use so that she could get in touch
with her (either way - nanny to dd or dd to nanny). She paid for a
year and she had some kind of service that calls between family
members were free. (She and her sister also have some kind of service
that allows them to call each other free) When dd's youngest child
started first grade, she didn't need the nanny anymore and took the
phone back and gave it to her older child who was then about 11 years
old I think. I doubt if he used it much.

if you're out of cash on the
phone you can't receive anything, which means if you're relying on the
phone to contact the child you could easily get in a mess. We've found
this hard to get used to, other places I've lived, receiving calls on a
cell phone is free, you could be out of minutes, but still contactable.
I'm not sure I'd be trusting a 7 year old to warn in advance of needing
a refill.

Cheers
Anne

Rosalie B. wrote:

...

None of the cell phones I've had for the last 6 or 8 years have
charged to receive calls, and on all of them a 911 call is free.

Some cell phone plans do charge to receive calls. Some have free
incoming calls from a select group of numbers (selected by the
user/parent), some have free incoming calls from within their network,
and some have free incoming calls from anywhere. And some have no free
calls from anywhere. So check the plan before signing on the dotted line.

If you have a cell phone that has no service contract at all, it can
still be used for 9-1-1 calls. So that is a good reason to keep old cell
phones that you would no longer be used. (There are also organizations
that reuse old cell phones, so there may be better uses, assuming, of
course, that you have a new cell phone for emergency use as well.)

My mom used to have a bag phone (probably Sprint) which was in her car
and she was charged when people called her even when she wasn't in the
car and didn't answer, but that hasn't been true for some time - at
least not here.

So don't get a service that charges to receive calls.

In my case, I still pay to get calls. I have gone over on the minutes
exactly once in the 2 years that I have owned the phone. Charging to
receive calls may be a good lesson for a kid; on the other hand, it
doesn't seem to be as important a lesson as, say, making a budget.

I guess the bottom line is that you need to know what you are getting
into before you sign. In my case, I did not anticipate using the phone
enough during the periods where I didn't get free calls, so I didn't
care that I had to pay for incoming calls.

BTW, another option for incoming calls and outgoing calls is Skype and
other IP telephone services.

...

Jeff

"Nan" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:44:45 -0700, Zipadee
wrote:

On Sep 10, 4:01 pm, Nan wrote:

I don't think I'd assume the parents would want my child to use their
cell phone. I wouldn't allow a friend of my dd to use mine, but *I*
would be willing to call, myself. Since I wouldn't assume that there
would be a cell phone available, I'd prefer sending her with one of
her own so there are no issues or problems with calling me.


If a friend of your dd was over playing and asked to call home, you
wouldn't let her use your phone? Why ever not? Are you concerned
she would misuse the phone or use up minutes? Would you allow
her to use your land line if you have one or is the objection
specific to cell phones?

I wouldn't want to have to deal with a potential accident with my cell
phone. It's easier for me to make the call for the child.
I've let kids use my land line telephone, but I've dialed the number
and given them the handset. Then I've made sure it's hung back up
properly.

If I had a 7-year-old daughter playing at a friend's house and she
wished to
call me, I would certainly hope that the friend's parent would allow
her to. And if I were the hosting parent and a child wanted to call
a parent, I'd do whatever was necessary to let her. I most certainly
wouldn't expect her to have her own phone to call her mother.

I wouldn't *expect* it either, but I would prefer my dd have her own
phone in such a case.

Would a child, age 7, be going to
a friend's house by herself without a parent knowing in advance and
making arrangements?

Probably not, but I'm not sure where making sure the child has a cell
phone of their own isn't making "arrangements"?

For young children, who are not likely to be all that responsible
with things such as cell phones, I would think the sort of
arrangements
that people made before there were cell phones would still do fine.

When I was young, everyone had a telephone. Like I said in an earlier
post, many people around here have given up their landline, or simply
cannot afford to have a phone. Those with cellphones sometimes have
periods their phone is out of order if they have trouble paying the
bill or putting airtime on it.

If she's going to a friend's house to play and the friend's family has
no phones at all, I would think the arrangements would be "I will
pick you up at 5pm and I expect you to be at their house at that
time".

And if your plans had to change for some reason, how would you
communicate that?

If I were in a situation where many families didn't have a phone, I could
see the point. However, I taught in inner city schools for 9 years, and
usually a family would have a cell phone. If you're in a situation where
you're depending on temp jobs, looking for work, and living hand to mouth
with relatives, having some way people can get in touch with you and offer
you work is essential, and is often the last thing to be dropped because it
IS a stable contact. Now, it is the case that many children in these
neighborhoods have little supervision, because the parent (usually only one)
is trying to get by and isn't available during the day, but honestly, if
someone didn't necessarily have a parent at home, I wouldn't be comfortable
allowing my child to play there, cell phone or no cell phone. There's too
much of a safety risk with young children and unreliable supervision. I'd
prefer to go and get the friend myself and bring them to my house to play.

If you wouldn't feel comfortable letting a child use YOUR cell phone because
you think they might drop or damage it (and I've dropped mine multiple times
and the thing is still working fine), how can you trust a 7 yr old with one
on a day to day basis?

Finally, I'd seriously consider that most schools have policies against cell
phones, especially at the elementary level, and confiscate same to be picked
up by a parent later (at most Middle and High schools, the phone is supposed
to be turned off and in the locker during the day, and if it rings or is
seen during the day will be confiscated). It is likely you could get an
excemption from said policy if there's a good reason for your child to have
such a phone, but cell phones in a school setting DO cause quite a lot of
problems. Avoiding the extra features helps (and is likely to improve your
chances of getting said excemption), but just the "ooh, cool new toy no one
else has" is an issue in and of itself. Maybe your child is the exception to
the rule, but most 7 yr olds simply aren't mature enough to not show off.






Nan

On Sep 10, 4:01 pm, Nan wrote:

I don't think I'd assume the parents would want my child to use their
cell phone. I wouldn't allow a friend of my dd to use mine, but *I*
would be willing to call, myself. Since I wouldn't assume that there
would be a cell phone available, I'd prefer sending her with one of
her own so there are no issues or problems with calling me.


If a friend of your dd was over playing and asked to call home, you
wouldn't let her use your phone? Why ever not? Are you concerned
she would misuse the phone or use up minutes? Would you allow
her to use your land line if you have one or is the objection
specific to cell phones?

If I had a 7-year-old daughter playing at a friend's house and she
wished to
call me, I would certainly hope that the friend's parent would allow
her to. And if I were the hosting parent and a child wanted to call
a parent, I'd do whatever was necessary to let her. I most certainly
wouldn't expect her to have her own phone to call her mother.

Would a child, age 7, be going to
a friend's house by herself without a parent knowing in advance and
making arrangements?

Probably not, but I'm not sure where making sure the child has a cell
phone of their own isn't making "arrangements"?

For young children, who are not likely to be all that responsible
with things such as cell phones, I would think the sort of
arrangements
that people made before there were cell phones would still do fine.

If she's going to a friend's house to play and the friend's family has
no phones at all, I would think the arrangements would be "I will
pick you up at 5pm and I expect you to be at their house at that
time".

While we all discuss this, has the OP been back to reply?
-- Zip

"Zipadee" wrote in message
ups.com...
While we all discuss this, has the OP been back to reply?


yup. around three hours ago posted once, correcting Banty's English/grammar
and commenting in response to her post. I've not seen anything else from
them.

Aula

On Sep 10, 6:22 pm, genkuro wrote:
On Sep 10, 10:42 am, Banty wrote:

In article , Beth Kevles
says...

Arrgh.

Mr. Dean?

Why does a seven year old need a cell phone?

"Why [can't *I* imagine] a seven year old need[ing] a cell phone?"

(Fixed that for you)

Probably because you aren't in the same environment. Both my wife and
I work. My mother-in-law watches the kids. There is no public bus
system here. That means moms, dads, grandparents, and nannies pick up
the children. Through it all, my son was left at school
accidentally.

Oh there you are, OP. My ex and I both work. Due to a
miscommunication,
our son was once left at the after-school program when he was about
7.
But the head of the program just took him home to her house and tried
to
reach each of us. It certainly would have helped if WE had had cell
phones then
but it wouldn't have helped our son if he had one. We did stress to
the
after-school program and to our kids that if something similar ever
happened
again, they should call ALL numbers they had for us and leave messages
at ALL of them. My ex had been at work then but must have stepped out
when they called and if they had left a message there (instead of at
just
our homes), our son would have been picked up much sooner.
My ex and I also made some changes to ensure the miscommunication
wouldn't happen again (and it didn't).

But my son was not left alone because the adults would not have left
him.
Does your school have no one around keeping an eye on things
and making sure no kids appear to be hanging around waiting
for someone who doesn't show up? No one who could look at
his records and find phone numbers for you and your wife and call?

Besides laminated safety numbers and a lot of discussions with my
child on what to do if he gets separated from adults, I think a cell
phone would help in that situation quite a bit. In fact, it seems the
perfect use for a cell phone.

You're right. I still can't imagine a 7-year-old needing a cell phone.

-- Zip