Cell phones are here to stay. I get that. I’m not going to tell you when you should give a child a cell phone or how much they should/should not be on it. But can we agree not to give them the latest and greatest cell phone?
First of all, these are kids. They lose things all the time. They break things all the time because they are kids.
When you give your child the latest iPhone, my child immediately thinks that I am trying to make sure she never rides the popular train and in turn, the worst mother in the world.
Now, she doesn’t understand this but I’m okay with being the worst mother in the world in her preteen eyes. One day she’ll understand. And if I get really lucky she’ll thank me for the decisions I’ve made.
Do I care if she is the most popular girl in school? Not really. If someone cares so much about what Galaxy Note she has, that’s not the type of friend I want her to have. I want the kids who don’t care that she has a flip phone because her horrible mother just doesn’t understand. I want friends for her that will see her for the wonderful person that she is and build her up.
When we lived in the Seattle area, she was the only one in her 5th-grade class who had a flip phone. Most of her classmates had the latest and greatest. And they looked down on those who didn’t.
We as her parents decided that she does not need access to the internet 24/7. She has a phone that will make calls and text. But knowing my children, having a phone with all the bells and whistles would be too distracting. I don’t want my child watching movies or playing video games during school lunch. I want her interacting with her peers, blowing off steam, practicing communication skills.
You can continue giving your child the latest and greatest. I’ll be over here making my child as unpopular as possible and celebrating my title as worst mother ever.
