ur new school aint got nothin on my old school

Shawnn - posted on 02/16/2011

Setting time limits such as do not call/text after a certain time is perfectly acceptable. This is teaching social responsibility as well as personal. The same reasons that we had cut off times still exist, it is simply rude. "Socially Unacceptable" is how my parents termed it. We have cut off times, as do most of my kids friends. My teens put down their phones at 7 pm on weeknights, 9 on weekends. Calls on the landline are not accepted after 8 pm (unless it is either my parents or my in-laws, who don't call after 8 unless it is an emergency). The kids are not allowed to make calls on the land-line after 8 pm either.

In this day and age, you simply cannot find a pay phone anywhere, which is why my kids have cell phones. HOWEVER, there is no rule (written or unwritten) that says they need a top of the line, name brand phone, either. Both of my kids are on pre-paid phones. They have to monitor their usage in order to have enough minutes to last them the month. I buy them one installment of minutes every month, and when they are gone, they are gone. At that point, they have to buy their own minutes, or suffer.

Bottom line, you have every right to limit usage of electronic devices. You are not being the heavy, you are being a parent.

Louveda - posted on 02/14/2011

I have two kids, different ages & different personalities. With my son I had to enforce a phone turned off during meals & bedtime. Otherwise he would be on his phone 24/7. My daughter is completely opposite. There has never been a need to have rules. She engages at dinner & is not a slave to her phone. If/when it begins to become a problem we will resort to requiring the phone be turned off during meals & turned off at bedtime. This seemed to work well with the older kid. I'm hoping that the years of observing the phone rules enforced on her older brother has been ingrained into her brain. :)

Lika - posted on 07/26/2010

i agree about letting a kid be a kid mine has a phone for saftey purposes so we can contact each other when were apart during his after school activities and things like that

i guess the texting and thing are added perks on his part only

i just dont want it to get to the point where it interferes with life in general like if it were to be used in excess or as you stated improperly

im hoping for the best and trying to plan as much in advance as possible i told him there would be surprise checks and the same rules we have for the family pc also apply for the cell with no exceptions

my other kids griped about him being the only one with a cell and i had to explain why that was and that they were welcomed to use the house phone like we did in the olden days lol

Lika - posted on 07/26/2010

12 year old boy btw does/should gender make a difference?

Zatonda - posted on 07/23/2010

my child is 14 today and I refuse to get her a phone, I did fine without one, Adults are crazy with the cell phone, considering my older children can't seem to fuction without it, I thought it would in be her best interest to allow her to be a kid, somehow them darn phone cause more damage than good at a young age, but since she has it yes I would put limitation on it,it's a walking computer I'm afraid this generation has out smarted the adults with those phones.

Tyciana - posted on 07/22/2010

Get into the habit of requiring them to leave all phones on your nightstand @ 9 or whatever works for you during the school week, maybe later, if you choose, on the weekend. Limits are necessary & don't worry about being the heavy, unfortunately, you can't get around it. New school year= New rules! oh and if the phone gets a text after a certain time, txt them back and say do not text ____aft 9 -her/his mother!

Joan - posted on 07/21/2010

hi
you didn't say how old she is but i think 9 is plenty late to turn the phone off for the day.