thought this had been covered before but couldn't find anything in search, what age do you cave and let the kid have a cellphone? Said no age 8 and again last year, which with covid and limited in school was easy. Back in school and all the other 10 year old 5th graders sporting iphones, so time to cave

i know fuck-all about iphones, android user. assume they can be locked down somewhat, tracked and such. Any good horror stories about letting a before middle school girl have a cellphone might be useful for a hail mary to punt on it for a another year

When they're old enough to pay for it themselves.

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5th or 6th grade sounds right. We got rid of our landline about that time and she started going places on her own. Most others got them around that time and it would be tough especially now to be the only one that didn't have it. You will have some bumps along the way so good luck.

6th grade seems reasonable.

That's what we did for our son. He rarely even uses it. He knows it's there for emergencies.

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i dont know what i would do. 12yo or maybe 10 seems reasonable, but with all the weird apps and ways to meet strangers i dont know.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Our daughter's 8 and we're planning on middle school, but she'd had an old iphone of mine with no sim card/data for a while that just uses our wireless. Can't download anything on it without my password.

My kid self-identifies as a 28-year-old non-binary woman so they've had one for a while now.

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We saw no need for our daughter to have one in middle school. I would of relented earlier than my wife did but in the end I think it was the right call for her.

My daughter just started 6th grade and we got her a phone. She is in band and cross country so she needs to be able to get in touch with us. I have the worst phone in the house now.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

I got my oldest a phone the first night I had to wait for HS football practice to end to take him home- 45 minutes of my time was better spent working here than waiting there. Once he hit the sidewalk, I could be there in ten minutes, so better for both of us. He's 27 now, and somehow, I still pay his cell bill...

The middle son got his for eight grade Christmas, because we were the cool parents.

Daughter might have been the same or a year earlier, by number three you pay a lot less attention.

who even uses it for a phone anymore?

15 is the magic number in the Nas household. It made zero sense for me to pay a monthly bill for a device that wasn't essential and very likely would create MORE distractions and cause problems. I may have to increase the age for my oldest son.

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Be well

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10

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I waited till high school. My kids were the last to get one.....

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I’m sorry you were poor.

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There's another world where we're brothers (yeah I know you are a brother) and RR is our daddy.

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this is the main reason to cave at this point, her friend group is cell phoned up now and she's feeling and probably is getting left out of group texts and what not. she has an ipad but it's not the same. my sister didn't let her daughter have a cell phone or be on social media until she (the daughter) was in high school and, as was found out too late, it seems to have impacted her socializing / making friends, even carrying over into college. No doubt different for boys, with sports and video gaming.

exactly, i buy last generation androids either used off of ebay or refurb'd off of amazon for $100-$150 out the door. Luckily Apple now has a pretty good entry level device that only cost $249 to buy outright from the carrier with an add-on line. Felt like a win to only pay that much for a new in the box iphone. Legit or the regular iphones are still crazy expensive. No charger in the box, dunno if that's cuz it's the SE model or if Apple's found yet another way to increase their gross profits. I'd be pissed if I paid $800 - $1200 for a regular iphone and it came without a charger.

Even as a boy though, you want to be making moves with the ladies. If you've got your own phone, you're able to text/snap/tiktok/etc.

My wife and daughter both have the newest iPhone SE ($250) while I have the original SE which I think is a 6. It works fine for everything I need it to do. I'll have teenagers asking why I am using an old phone and I should upgrade. Bahhh- a phone is not a status symbol for me. Hell, I am using my wife's old aqua-colored Otter box. I could give two shits about my phone as long as it is functional.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

I like this stance but 5-7 years from now me thinks you will have to be a bit more flexible.

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I did find it amazing that my parents were always on time and rarely waited long to pick us up after games when would would travel from Elgin to Chicago for games. The bus driver would contact the school and it would go out on some tree and they would give us an ETA and it worked. Now that the cell phone exists it seems like they cant be bothered with this anymore. I dunno, I'm going to go chase kids off my lawn and yell at clouds for a while.

I used to call home collect or with a calling card on the school pay phone after golf and basketball practices and my mom would come and get me. None of the kids on my teams lived nearby and I didn't get my own car until after high school.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I had to be paired with an upperclassman who was in the same sport, who was selected by my parents to give me rides home. I think they tossed him some gas money as incentive, but it actually worked out, as I earned a little hallway cred by osmosis.

In actual news, I went to have a few beers and watch TNF with my oldest son, he informed me that he and his new bride will both be leaving their parents' cell plans and venturing off to form their own package. I was just thinking about how to broach that subject with him...maybe my wife gave him a heads up. I think that has been 13 years almost exactly.

Hell yeah

Fuck yeah for the boys

When I was in 9th grade my parents gave me a calling card for emergencies at public phones with the instruction that I was never ever under any circumstances able to use it. My dad said that if I was kidnapped then the kidnappers would call them and let them know where to drop off the ransom. I said what if they don't want a ransom what if they just sexually abuse me and kill me and leave me in the woods and he said then he could cancel the calling card.

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You must still have a home phone.

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2018
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We gave my daughter a phone when she started walking home from school. 12yrs old.

You can setup all types of monitoring apps on the phone. We monitor her location and phone usage. Sends us a report of what apps she uses and sites she visits.

We also put a limit on the amount of time she can be on it before it locks the apps. Must have if you allow them on social media.