Whitney Barthel
posted in Mom Stories
Sometimes I ponder decisions I will have to make as my boys get older. Should they be able to buy a car the minute they turn sixteen? Should I send them to private school or public school? Should I put them in piano lessons? Most of these questions are things parents have been dealing with for generations. I have no doubt they will work themselves out. The one aspect of parenting that has changed since I was a child is technology.
Cell phones and the first 3.2 megapixel digital camera were on the rise my sophomore year of college and it was an exciting time! I was the proud owner of a blue Nokia brick phone. Let me tell you, that ‘snake game’ could keep you entertained for hours. And the beginning of Facebook- don’t even get me started.
There is a lot of responsibility that comes with technology and I’m not sure our kids are mature enough to deal with that at the ages we are allowing them to. Being well connected with a few teachers has affirmed this suspicion.
Friend Tiffani writes, “Today I had one of my 9th graders put away her phone while she worked on homework. When she pulled out her phone one hour later, she had 402 unread text messages!”
Another friend commented, “I took a phone [away] today and entered the wrong password until the phone was locked for 5 hours. The 16 year old boy who I took it from almost cried. What is wrong with kids today…”
As we progress further into the technology revolution the question of our children’s wellbeing seems to be brought up more and more. Articles like this one urge us to keep our young kids away from electronics. And even though we are advised to not allow our children endless technology playtime, we can’t help but jump at the latest toddler or baby app.
Maybe I’m just nostalgic and yearn for a simpler time when Walkmans and a roll of film were the norm, or maybe I’m just sad coming to the realization that my children will eventually outgrow their need for me. Either way, my children will never own an ‘i’ anything until they are old enough to understand life does go on without a cell phone or a tablet…and possibly until they are old enough to pay for one themselves.
At what age have you/will you allow your child to have a cell phone?
Read more from source:“babycenter-com-baby”
