What Age Would You Get Your Kids A Phone?

Kids and Cell Phones

At what age do you let your kids have a cell phone?

This past Spring I gave my son Dylan my old iPhone.  Dylan turned 10 in December of 2013.  My thoughts on it were  “he is becoming independent and I need to get in touch with him if there is a problem”.  The main reason for giving him my old cell phone was that we ski at Killington on the weekends and I wanted to be able to track him and call him if he is not back at a certain time. His ski group ends at 3:00 PM. This particular day it was 3:15 PM he was not back so I called and texted him on his phone.  I got no response.  At 3:30 PM he came skiing down, and I said to him “I have been calling you, why did you not come back with your group?” Dylan said, “I know you were calling and I didn’t want to pick it up because you would just tell me to come back.  So I just kept skiing.”  Now I’m thinking to myself then “Why did I give him this iPhone?”   I explained to him that I needed to know where he was so his Mom and I don’t worry.

The next few weeks he was better with the communication using the phone.  This past weekend he had a competition at Mt. Snow. He had his cell phone so that we could find him if we needed too.  At the end of the day I got a call from him crying, he gave me his location and I went to get him.  He was with a medic and was able to call me so I could get to him quickly.  He ended up with a fractured collarbone.  In this moment I was happy that I made the decision to give him a cell phone.  I got to him in minutes instead of hours, and that is a big deal to both of us.  He is fine now and I’m glad he had the phone with him.

What age would you get your kids a phone?

About the Author:  Fred DaMore is a Mortgage Specialist at Ross Mortgage. You can contact him at fred.damore@rossmortgageco.com

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