Community Corner

Moms Talk: Do Kids Need Cell Phones?

Each week, Germantown Patch picks a topic to generate conversation between local moms.

Moms Talk is a new feature on Germantown Patch that is part of a new initiative on our Patch sites to reach out to moms and families.

Germantown Patch invites you and your circle of friends to help build a community of support for mothers and their families right here in Germantown.

Each week in Moms Talk, our Moms Council of experts and smart moms and dads take your questions, give advice and share solutions.

Find out what's happening in Germantownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Moms, dads, grandparents and the diverse families who make up our community will have a new resource for questions about local neighborhood schools, the best pediatricians, 24-hour pharmacies and the thousands of other issues that arise while raising children.

Moms Talk will also be the place to drop in for a talk about the latest parenting hot topic. Do you know of local moms raising their children in the Tiger Mother's way and is it the best way? Where can we get information on local flu shot clinics for children? How do we talk to our children about the conflict in the Middle East? How can we help our children's schools weather their budget cutbacks?

Find out what's happening in Germantownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

So grab a cup of coffee and settle in as we start the conversation today:

What is the appropriate course of action for getting your kid a cell phone? At what age should they get it? How do you navigate explaining why your child might be too young for a cell phone? What phones might you recommend to parents going through this--something cheap? If you as a mom aren’t at this stage with your kids yet, how do you anticipate handling it?

Susan Burkinshaw, a local mother, says, "With three kids spanning six years, this has been sticky for us. Our oldest got one when he entered middle school. This made sense because he would be coming home alone after school before his elementary school age siblings. So the decision to get his brother one when he got to fifth grade made sense, because the older one already had it, and the younger two were together.

"We had made the decision that their sister, four years younger than her next brother, would get one when she was 10. That decision melted away when we had an extra line available on Verizon, they were offering a free phone, and she was DYING for a phone. She was in third grade.

"Needless to say, my high-schooler now wants a BlackBerry, my middle schooler wants an iPhone, and my daughter just wants a “cooler” phone. The boys have phones with full keyboards for texting and internet access for e-mail, but we are not ready to make the leap to a full data plan yet—the cost is just not justifiable--and since my daughter rarely has her phone with her anyway (although now many of her friends are starting to get them), her utilitarian phone is just fine. Besides, she can text faster on a 10-key phone dial pad than I can on my BlackBerry!

"The major advantage to early-adoption of cell-phone technology by kids is that they learn to use the phone as a resource, not as a toy. Once all their friends have one, it becomes a social link and gets used a lot more frequently for fun, rather than just to call mom and dad to say they need a ride to a friend’s house. It gave us an opportunity to teach them cell phone/texting etiquette and to teach them the perils of giving your cell phone number out to everyone, before everyone else had a phone."


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