I agree with Kristi; "In my family, chores are your responsibility, no ifs, ands, buts, or expectations of priviledge.
If mom and dad don't get paid to do them, neither should the children be expected to be paid to do them."
Any minutes she buys would be paid for with allowance, or money she earns working for Dad, babysitting, etc. I really appreciate the post about the crank calls, however, as that application had not occurred to me, and I know for a fact that she has used friend's cells to make crank calls.
I can see that if we do get her a phone, we are going to have to have a solid list of rules, expectations and consequences in place before she gets it.
I DO like the idea of the smartphone with limited numbers and tracking, but I suspect that will be out of our reach financially. My cell is prepaid, I almost never use it, and I think since I got it two and a half years ago I have spent a total of maybe $250 in required 'top-ups', and when we had a plan that was two to five months worth. (My husband's phone use went way down when he had to PAY everytime he ran out of minutes too!

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