Kids & phones question

[BusyBeeMom]

Not sure where this goes...

I don't have a landline, I have not in years & years. My kids are 1 & 3, so it's not an issue right now, but at some point they'll want to be able to make/receive phone calls, right?

I'm guessing that the "phone age" may come before the "responsible enough for a cell phone" age. Plus, a young child having a cell phone has its own host of issues....

What do other non-landline families do? Do you just get landlines?

[zeldamomma]

Since you obviously have internet access, you could get a voice-over IP phone.

Or you could get a cellphone which is for the kids' use, but is your responsibility.

ZM

[TEAK's Mom]

At first, the kids could probably use your phone, too. That way you can help them learn responsible use.

[WaturMama]

I would be concerned about the cell phone's radiation next to their growing brains. I just did a quick google search on "cell phone health." It looks like concerns have been raised, I'm not sure if it is conclusive, but if it were my kids I'd want to find out more. I do understand that headsets keep the radiation away, but am not sure how that would work for kids.

[LynnS6]

Get a play phone (old cell phone with no battery works really well) and let them use it in play. You can pretend to call them, and work on 'phone manners' that way. You should hear the 'conversations' that dd has with her imaginary friends:

Hello, Hanna?
I'm calling to invite you to my birthday party.
(pause)
That's right, next Saturday.
(pause)
Well, since you're coming from across the river, you'll have to go over the bridge....

She had that 'conversation' just after she turned 3. She knows all the phone rules from listening to us on the phone. (Ds is another matter... he's going to require explicit instruction. But he seems to need this in all things social!)

I figure that by the time my kids are old enough to answer the phone, there may be a whole new technology out there that I don't even know about yet, so I'm not sweating it! Most kids aren't ready to make/receive phone calls before 8-10 anyway, and they don't really want to use the phone a lot until they're a bit older.

[woobysma]

we did a lot of what the other posters have said (written?)...... for years, DS just gave his friends my cell number and we used it like we would a land-line (thankfully, young boys aren't big talkers)...... then we got a VOIP phone with our cable internet......

Last year, I got DS (10) a cell phone that's kind of "his". It was a second line added to my cell plan & cost an extra $10/mo. He still doesn't carry it around everywhere, but it's a good back-up phone and nice to be able to give it to him when he goes somewhere w/o me.

[hottmama]

My 5 yr. old makes and receives calls (to/from family) on my cell phone. When he's 10-ish, we'll get him his own phone. He knew how to use speed dial at 3 or 4.

[fork]

My nephew is in a "no landline" household. His parents just got him a cheap cell phone and added it to one of their plans. I think he got it when he was 7, he's almost 10 now and there haven't been any problems. He only uses it to call a couple of school friends, grandma and to call mom when he gets to school (he walks). He never takes it out of the house (except on the walk to school, and then checks it into the office when he gets there). I don't really think the problems of racking up huge phone bills happen until the teen years. Just because it's a cell phone doesn't mean he has to be obnoxious with it, just treat it like a cordless phone in that when he's done with it, it goes back on the desk or wherever and it doesn't leave the house.

[AdInAZ]

My kindergartener came home today with a phone number written on the back of her paper. She said she wanted to call her friend and tell her a secret. I told her we could call together and invite her friend over to play, but she would not be having a conversation on the phone. She could talk to her friend at school. Dd loses it and thinks I'm the meanest mom in the world. I told her she could call grandma and talk, or she could call dad. SHe could care less about that. I don't think kids really need to make phone calls. And I doubt she will ever have her own phone. She can use the family phone when she is older. I want her to have her conversations face to face with her friends, and when she is home, converse with us. Am I in denial?