TheMommyBlog

My kid’s school policy is kids can’t use their phone if they forgot their lunch or assignment.  If they’re sick, then it’s allowed.  It’s in case of emergency only.  Your school admin shouldn’t have planted that seed but I wouldn’t confront her.  Your kids might need her help in the future.  It’s better not to burn bridges just in case.  (ie - they have let my kid call me when I forgot to pick him up a few times - oops.  I pretend to be nice even though I can’t stand those rude admins :mad:) 

Now, if you want to make an anonymous comment on the school admins, you can write a review on greatschools.net.  You have to word it carefully so it gets posted.  For me, someone wrote about the unfriendly admins at my school and I “agreed with the other post” about the rude admins.  That way, they couldn’t reject my post.  Good luck!

My oldest (9) bugs me for a phone too.  His reason is that 3 other kids in his class have them.  If/when you get them a phone, they will check it off their list and move to the next item.  It never ends.

Go mom stick to your guns I wish I had.  I gave me daughter (Allison, 12) and my son (Hunter, 14) cell phones for Christmas and it was the biggest mistake of thier lives.  I am talking about kids on the phone all hours and then the phones were taken at school and I had to go and retrieve them.  Nothing but a headache!

As for the rules at school at the magnet school you can use the phone at lunch and on the bus.  At my daughters school only on the bus!  Imagine my surprise when one day my daughter calls me from the school bathroom!

OH MY GOD. Our 11 year old has been buggin us as well about the darn cell phone. It kills me. He says “All my friends have one” then I say “Well you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a phone to call me on then!” HA!
I am just not ready for that.

mindy, i’m right there with ya! my 9 yr old has already begun some noisemaking about a cell phone, to which we reply that she can have one when she’s old enough to be working and can pay for it herself.

i don’t understand why any child needs one.  it’s a false sense of keeping track of them, since they can call from anywhere and be any other place they want.  Hard to fake calling from their friends’ landline or friends’ parents’ cell to confirm they’re where they’re supposed to be!

I’m with Wendy.  None of my kids got cell phones until they had jobs and could pay their share of the bill.  I even make them pay more than just for their line since I had to get more minutes than I would need just for myself. 

I’m not at all opposed to saying something to the secretary.  It doesn’t have to be confrontational.  It could be much more passive aggressive than that.  She needs to know that you know what she said and that you know that part of her job is being there for the students.  I work in a school, I used to sub for the secretaries.  It’s okay for the kids to call their parents and it’s not okay for her to make them feel bad about it.

RESIST!

When we renewed our cell phone contract in Sept, they had some “buy one get as many as you have numbers free” deal so my husband decided to get a phone for the kids to share.  Within a month, they broke the screen and since it had a camera feature, a few months ago one of the kids carried it off to video something and it’s now lost.  So I’m paying like $20 a month for a number that has no phone.  Very annoying…

I am with Wendy and Gail. My six year-old daughter has been asking for one, and she’s in kindergarten.

It’s a status thing. I know because I let her take her Hello Kitty calculator (which looks like a cell phone) to school “to show her teacher.” I must have been missing half my mind because I said OK, then watched her show the boys in her class and smile while they went nuts over the fact that she had a cell phone.

And I would talk to the secretary, if only to tell her that you need to know that your kids won’t be shamed for calling home on the school phone.

Keep fighting the good fight on the cell phone front. I’m so sad to hear your kids are being made to feel that a cell phone (for a child) is necessity - and not just by their peers but the adults. The reality is it will be one more thing to keep track of. And don’t get me started on keeping track of phone chargers left at one parent’s house and now the phone is dead, blah, blah, blah. I would also have a little pow wow with the school secretary. Good luck.

Oh no she did NOT say that! That’s appalling.

Forget the secretary - go straight to the principal and ask for a clarification of school policy. If that’s the official policy - children cannot phone their parents during the school day unless parents pony up for a cell - I’ll eat my crocs. I’d also be surprised if it’s at the secretary’s discretion!

Here in New England, they discourage cells in school before high school. All the middle school kids have them anyway, but get them taken away if they have them on in the building during the day. Very few grade schoolers have them. Kids call home as needed.

Also - they don’t do a great job of it, but they try to be cognizant that not every family’s financial situation allows for cell phones and $800 class trips.

Dude. I wasn’t allowed a cell phone until I was 18. My younger sister got one when she could drive. I still think that’s fair. My friend’s child has one and she’s 8. She doesn’t take it to school, but still. Crazy.

I’d say something to the receptionist. Maybe just a tiny bit louder than you should. Cell phones are expensive. And the family plan I share with three other people? Almost $300 a month. If that isn’t a lot of money to someone… they have too much money.

Just say NO! No! Nooooooooooooooooo….......

Maggie just turned 11 and she would d.i.e. for a cell phone. What the hell does she need one for? She doesn’t talk to her friends on the phone now and why do I need a cell phone to encourage the madness. I always ask her ‘who is she going to call besides me?’ when she starts.

We have an extra phone that we let her carry while skiing in case we got seperated. She was calling me when she was at the bottom and I was 200yds. behind her; she knew exactly where I was, ferpetesake. It was all the proof I needed to show her that she would be using it frivolously. Gah!

The whole kids with cell phones thing drives me bonkers. Around Christmas time my friend’s ex gave their eight year old daughter a cell phone and a pre-paid calling card. Eight years old!!! What a freaking nightmare!

Of course then my own eight year old daughter wanted one and I could not resist saying (in front of both mother and daughter) “You’re eight. You don’t need a cell phone.”

Thankfully once the calling card expired they didn’t get another one and the phone died a quiet death but what a pain in the arse until it did.

That school secretary had a lot of nerve saying what she did. I bet she’d keep her mouth shut if you handed her your child’s cell phone bill.;)

Many parents feel they don’t have to get their child a phone but it makes them feel better that they can reach their child whenever they need to. However, parents are right to not want their child texting or being on the phone all of the time. Setting boundaries is what parents do. Cell phones should be the same. Cricket wireless gives parents options so they can let their child have a phone for what they need and not just as a status symbol. Cricket wireless monthly plans for just voice, no text to them to get in trouble with, start at $30 or they have pay as you go plans where you only pay for the days you use it. So if you’re at the beach you can give them a phone and send them for the hot dogs without worrying about them or a monthly bill.