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UK: Almost a quarter of kids aged 5-7 have smartphones
(www.bbc.com)
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this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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It’s much easier to give your kid your old phone and pay $10 a month for a kids’ account than to deal with your kid constantly wanting to use your phone.
Being a good parent isn't doing whatever's easiest to distract your kid.
When they are at the point of going to sleepovers, play dates at friends, camp, etc it also makes a lot of sense to give them a lifeline.
The kids line I pay for gives me all the parental controls I could dream of and control over her contacts. I am 100% present, but I’m not dumb enough to send me kid out into the world without a lifeline.
It seems being needlessly judgmental is the easiest of all.
Dumbphone seems enough for a "lifeline". Also parental controls where the parent sees absolutely everything seem dystopian af anyway, I would not like to expose my potential child to such an experience.
Lmoa you’re suggesting that me fully managing my seven year old’s phone is dystopian? The free-phone-because-it’s-my-old-phone with great parental controls is way safer than a dumb phone with no contact management or GPS tracking.
You can do whatever the fuck you want in this “dystopian” world, but try to be less judgmental when you think a dumb phone is a better option for a child.
Why do they need a "lifeline"? They can ask an adult to call you if they need something. If you don't trust them at a sleepover or play date, then don't send them.
I let my kids go to their friends' houses all the time and sometimes to the local park by themselves, and I've never once regretted not giving them a phone. They know our address, phone numbers, and how to get home, and we pre-arrange what time they should be home (they have simple watches).
That has worked well for us.
It’s also easier to give them all the candy they can eat, than to deal with your kid constantly wanting candy. Doesn’t make it healthy.
For sure, its easier than being present as a parent
When they are at the point of going to sleepovers, play dates at friends, camp, etc it also makes a lot of sense to give them a lifeline.
The kids line I pay for gives me all the parental controls I could dream of and control over her contacts. I am 100% present, but I’m not dumb enough to send me kid out into the world without a lifeline.
It seems being needlessly judgmental is the easiest of all.
They are being 'needlessly judgemental' about this line, you can fret over the importance of having 100% control over the device (which is weird to me as well but that's besides the point), having your kid conditioned to constantly want your phone is what people are calling you out for.
Yup. My kids want mine, but it's probably because I spend too much time on it as-is. So I'm trying to cut back.
I never let my kids play with my phone though. That's just a giant "nope" from me. Either they have their own and I trust them with it, or they don't, there's no in-between for me.
I use my phone for work. My child sees me use my phone 8 hours a day. Of course she wants to use the thing she sees me use all the time. She loves taking pictures on our hikes and looking through the photo albums. This is completely normal and supervised.
What’s weird is all the assumptions that I would let my kid have free rein on a smartphone, and assumptions as to how my child really enjoying using my phone is somehow a bad thing. We live in a not great part of town and having gps tracking, only mom/dad/grandparents as contacts, and other safety features makes my old-gen smartphone a good lifeline.
Ya’ll are missing the forest for the trees with your assumptions.
Read your own words, you'd rather give your child a phone than deal with your child wanting yours. That is exactly what you said, no assumptions needed.
Yes, I’d rather teach them to responsibly use their own tool instead of them wanting mine, in a supervised way. So crazy, right?
Next time start with that instead of giving them a phone because that's easier than dealing with the child, people might not get their knickers in a twist.
Any twisting ya’ll are doing is all by yourself. What I said is true, and if ya’ll need to fill in the blanks to fit your judgmental narratives, that’s not my problem.
Maybe just stop being needlessly obfuscative or dogmatic and we could have avoided all of this 🤷♂️
You are fully aware ipad babies are a widespread phenomenon? Those people use that exact wording to justify doing so, you can blame people for throwing you under the bus alongside those people, but you also could've just worded that more carefully.
I clearly stated it was a supervised seven year old pretty early on, yet you just kept on about it as if I was some negligent parent lol. Not sure if it was you or the one of the other you’s in the thread who called me “dystopian” lmao.
Ya’ll could also reply with civility either way. I know it’s a lot to expect of people on the internet, but jeeze man. There are much better hills to die on
I'm just telling you why people are taking your comment the wrong way. I've been nothing but respectful but man take it easy lmao