Cell Phones for kids

[racedude1984]

When my child is going places without an adult.

 

[Thalassamania]

Our kids got cell phones at the point where their having one made our lives easier.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Wow Jim. I don't want to be rude but I'd bet you don't have any kids.....

Times change, my dear friend. When I was 8 (in my case in 1974) 8-track tapes were the future and the cell phone hadn't even been invented yet. But I had a short wave radio that my father attached to a 1500ft long antenna that he built by wrapping loops of copper wire around the roof of our house.

It was like a life line to me. It was the most important thing my father ever did for me. On the "normal" radio I could only get two stations. Radio Canada which was all about "culture" (which meant classical music) and the local radio station that needed a bomb threat before they would consider playing anything that didn't sound like a tortured cowboy whose prize cow died of loneliness.

But shortwave, baby!!!! In 1974, that was the dope. I totally kicked from listening to the evening news on the American propaganda station and then tuning in to the Russian propaganda sender an hour later to hear the same news stories from a totally different perspective.

Kids these days can't even understand that. If they want the news from a different perspective they just point their browser at ??????? ?? and click on the English flag. Our kids live in a different world than we did and it is *our* job to keep pace, not *their* job to pretend that everything was better 50 years ago! And cell phones are a part of their world.

My POV, I know. But that's how I see the world our kids live in.

R..

Actually I have two. My daughter is going to be 21 this week and my son will be 24 in November. She is disabled and will never use a cell phone due to epilepsy and cerebal palsy. Mentally they estimate her age at 24-30 months. My son did not get his until he was 16 and cutting lawns and doing other odd jobs to make money. The phone he has now isn't even on. Would not work in Afgahanistan where he's at for another month and a half anyway. He did not even get a drivers license until he was 19 because he could not afford the insurance. He waited until he was in the Air Force a year and had money and time to do it. I did break down and sign for his first car. He got the second one all on his own. I see no big deal with prepaid ones to keep track of kids these days with all the scumbags running around. I like those ones with 4 numbers on them. 911, mom, dad, and one other person. Good thing for a kid whose parents do not keep physical track of him/her to have.