I’m still undecided about mobile phones and if we should ever get one for Arddun. And yes, it’s all theoretical right now anyway, seeing how none of her peers owns a mobile that isn’t made by Fisher Price.
But if and when we get one, I really ought to keep this contract in mind.
Finding The Happy 
4 January 2013 at 1:06 am
no don’t do it… i didn’t get one until i was actually going off on my own to do stuff… and i think it’s crazy how young kids are getting them now-a-days… of course i don’t have a kid and well everyone has different views… but until you’re going to leave them at home alone or they’re going off somewhere without an adult then they probably don’t need one…
and that is a pretty good contract… my friends parents was always complaining that they’d call her and she wouldn’t answer and i was always thinking why don’t you just shut her phone off then and stop paying for a grown adults bills… ok i was more friends with her parents than her but still…
4 January 2013 at 7:49 am
Yeah, I’m slightly conflicted about this one. I held the view for the longest time that my child shouldn’t own a mobile phone until she was off to work, practically. But they don’t really make pagers any more – which was what I used when I was in junior college (high school) – and I am also really mindful that times have changed and will continue to change. Arddun’s world is going to be very different from mine.
I think, as with everything else, that the answer to this one for us is “It all depends”. Tony and I were talking about this before he went to work today. If Arddun is sensible about things; if she isn’t addicted to technology to the point of distraction, if she is old enough to pay for her own way through savings from pocket money and extra chores etc, and if she is open and honest about what she uses her mobile phone for and obeys our rules… it could be a good, convenient thing. They don’t allow mobile phones during class time anyway – but that’s beside the point. It’s a trust thing, and if we know that she’s reached a level of maturity where she can be sensible about when to use her mobile, then it could make a nice Christmas present. :)