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I got my first cell phone at the age of 34. That was in 1999. I was dead set against them because I don't like how dependent people are on them in general. However, I got in a car accident on a January day when the temperature was below zero. I had my 5 year old daughter in the car with me and was freaking out that I had no way to contact anybody if the car was damaged. Thankfully, the car wasn't damaged, but it dawned on me that there are not pay phones on every corner like there used to be, so our next stop that day was the cell phone store. I still don't use it that much although I cancelled long distance on the home phone because I can call my dad for free on the cell and never use all the minutes. I don't even turn it on most of the time, unless I know that my ex-husband or kids will be trying to reach me.
That said, my 10 year old (5th grade) daughter is DYING to get a cell phone. Two of her friends have them. I am not getting her one. I told her straight out "You are never in a situation where there is not a phone available for you to use for free, you are never unsupervised without a phone available to use, there is no need for you to have a cell phone". I even confronted one of the mom's whose daughter has one and said (in a kind voice) "I blame you for Shannon wanting a cell phone because you started this trend!". She told me that her daughter, Stephanie, bought the phone with money she got for her birthday and has to buy the cards with minutes with her own money. She is quickly realizing that it was a waste of her money because she uses it so rarely and the novelty has worn off.
I will consider it when my daughter has reached an age that she and her friends are going places and being dropped off without an adult with them and even then, there will be very strict rules about its use. When she drives, she will definitely have one. Back in my day, we couldn't leave without 20 cents (Yes, ONLY 20 cents) to make a phone call from a pay phone, but there really aren't pay phones around like there used to be, so at some point, a cell becomes a necessity for safety reasons.
Dee
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