If your child hasn’t already or isn’t old enough yet, the time will come that he or she is going to ask your for a cell phone.
All of their friends have them and they’re going to want to keep in touch with everyone. You might even think it’s a good idea for your child to have a cell phone so you can be in constant contact throughout the day. Cell phones are necessary for emergencies as well.
I came across an article about questions you should ask before you buy your kids cell phones and it offers some good points. Here are a few of them.
- How do you plan to pay for your child’s cell phone?
- Do you want your child to have internet access 24/7?
- Are you prepared for your kids to use their cell phones to send text messages?
- Are you prepared for you child to have unsupervised conversations with anyone?
Cell phone use it something we have become comfortable with–perhaps too much so. The truth is you need to know if your child is ready for a cell phone.
The most important thing you can do is keep up with your kids daily life, know who their friends are, and know what they’re doing with their cell phone. You will get the bill most likely, so this shouldn’t be too difficult. Set some ground rules. Be the one in control.
Remember, if they have a cell phone, your kids are only a phone call away at any time. And that can be very reassuring for a parent.
Related posts:
Although I am a Tracfone fan myself (currently on the Straight Talk plan) I have used NET10 for both my kids for a while now. Low cost at only 10c per minute & 5c per text, but also really easy for them to understand. They get to ‘budget’ their own minutes – we even let them recharge the phones themselves. It has been a great tool for teaching them about resource management and finances.