[aMarylandfamily]

Our ds (age 16) has provided lots of challenges throughout the pre-teen and beginning teen years but he has had a cell phone in his pocket since he turned about 10 ... 1) to be our "leash" as many of you represent it so you always have contact and 2) for emergencies but we have had several instances in these years where we have gotten the phone call with coded words "What do you mean I have to come home now" ... which is in turn our request for action to "something is going on - come get me" without him looking like a nerd in front of his friends ... and one of those calls even found one of his peers being arrested for setting a field on fire one night ... he chose to call home for a ride ... teens don't always make the right choices but give them all the ammunition they can to do so along the way! Limits can be set (text #'s, hours, minutes, etc.) but responsibility only is earned when given to earn.

[Teresa K]

My son lost his phone a couple weeks ago. There wasn't much I could say since they do get lost and the poor child was SOO upset about it. He had Easter money to help buy a new one which I felt was responsible of him. There is one phone now that allows parents and kids to pick the numbers they will pay for. Such as I will always pay for calls to me and a couple other people. His friends he could call from the house phone he pays for. Same with text messages. I thought this was a totally awesome deal, and the minutes are reasonable for a pre-paid. I doubt I can post who makes these phones, we got it at Target though.

[xxsurroundedbyxy]

Get her a Firefly this year. Next year when she goes to highschool, she will be due for an upgrade and you can get her a regular cell phone if you feel she is ready for one.

They allow parents (with a password) to add to the address book only who they want. So unsavory friends, bioparents, etc cannot be added unless by you. They have a mom, dad, and 911 button which is the only people a young child really needs to call in a true emergency and are easy to use. There are no text msg features or games so the phone is just to feel safe.

If the only people they can call is mom, dad, grandparents, school, and 911 they won't be using up alot of minutes trust me. heehee. We added my son's to our account last year for 9.99 a month. This month he was due for the upgrade and we got him a free razor phone which will be his birthday present in May.

Kim

[Howdy]

My daughter (11 yrs old) bought a Kajeet phone with her own money. The Kajeet phones are designed for tweens, the parents can control how much money the kid has to spend on calls, the parent can log onto the website and block times of day, make exceptions for some phone numbers, etc. Also you can set it so that the money for calls to mom and dad are free to the kid (money comes out of the 'parent wallet') but the calls to others come out of the kid's 'wallet'. So they may run out of money texting friends, but can still call home.

I don't know how well the features work (the blocking times works fine, that one I've used).

I didn't think a child would need a cell phone either but the times that I've had it unblocked and with money on it, it has been very useful.

She wants to go spend the night at friends' houses and lots of times families don't have land phones anymore and what if their phone isn't charged or gets mislaid or who knows what.

What is changing my mind about her need for a phone is how often she has borrowed friend's cell phone to call me and I was glad she called.

For example yesterday the school bus got stuck in the snow. I waited in the wind and rain and hail for twenty minutes, then my mom appeared with an umbrella and the news that my daughter called (using a friend's cell) and said they were stuck.

If she'd had her own phone I think she'd have called right away, and I wouldn't have spent 20 minutes freezing.

Then again this morning the darn bus didn't show up. After a half hour I went off to feed the horses but she went to the house and called the school and then the transportation office (this kid really likes to go to school) and found out the bus was on its way now (after having to stop to put on chains). It would have been really convenient if her phone hadn't been blocked and out of money because she carries it with her all the time and we could have called sooner (we didn't want to leave the bus stop).

Of course, I could learn to have mine with me, that would help too!

[Teresa K]

My son also has Kajeet, it was my understanding the safe list (or whatever it is called, the three people they can always call) can be left unblocked. I think this is a truly wonderful kid phone personally but still need to figure some of it out.