My wife and I recently let our 9YO acquire a (hand-me-down) phone after hearing so much about how
her other friends have “had them
forever!” to which I used the standard parental handbook page 93 answer of,
“well if all of your friends had hungry
pet tigers, should we get you one too?”
Her getting one didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t come without
hurdles. After a few discussions, making her write out a list on why she’s
responsible enough to own one and presenting it, then I agreed.
It does still seem strange to me that kids have cell phones
(or “mobiles” as they call them in
Europe) so young as I got my first cell phone at 27!
When I was her age I wasn’t even allowed to have a Walkman! And
kids that had their own phone (land-line) well, they were pretty much living
the high-life.
We made arrangements to make her pay for the phone
(discounted) out of her allowance and pay a portion of the monthly fee from her
allowance as well. For being 9, I’m quite proud of her budgeting skills – she
makes me proud at that for sure!
Then I wrote out a contract with her listing out things like
expectations, her responsibility, payments, behavior, Apps, social things like
texting, Instagram, and general phone etiquette. While writing it out I
realized that having the phone is actually a pretty good teaching mechanism.
When I spoke to other friends with kids around her age, I
was a bit taken back at how they thought the idea of having their kid sign a
contract was strange. After some chatting then they realized that maybe they
should have one as well.
Here it is for anybody to use or modify to fit their own
needs:
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