This seems to be the question that many parents are asking themselves as their kids beg them for cell phones these days. I am trying to think, what thing I begged for as a child, I think it was being allowed to carry a purse or have an allowance but times have changed.
First I will tell you that my 7, 9 and 14 year old all have their own cell phones. They were purchased as each one turned 7. That being said, for us, there was a reason - my husband travelled a lot over the past couple of years and my kids missed him. This was a way for them to call their dad whenever they wanted, send text messages and pictures to each other to make the time apart easier on everyone.
While some may think this is a waste of money, here are 5 tips I used:
- I justified this expense by cancelling our home phone service and opting for Skype. The money I saved on cancelling the home phone service paid for the extra monthly cost of the 3 additional cell phones on our current plan (fortunately we could add 3 phones for $10 each plus tax).
- My children all know that they can only call people that are using our cell phone service because those calls are free. If they call outside the network - they pay for the calls.
- We opted for the unlimited text plan as well. This is working great for us and I think it kind of gets texting out of their system. They were HUGE "texters" at first and now the fun has worn off and they don't abuse it.
- My kids are not allowed to download anything from the Internet including games and ringtones.
- Phones are not toys - they are not to make calls to people they do not know and they are not to answer ANY text messages or phone calls if they do not recognize the number.
These rules that we have for cell phone use have all been working for our family for several years. I am happy to report that we have never gone over our minutes (knock on wood because kids will be kids) and I haven't had to take away a cell phone for misuse! Do you have any other tips for keeping your kids safe and maintaining your cell phone budget (after adding your kids to the plan). Please leave a comment, I am always looking for more ways to manage this expense.
If you are looking into cell phones for your kids and you want to start with something simple, I might suggest you look at Kajeet. There are no contracts, no activation fees and no termination fees. There are plans as low as $4.99 a month and ones that include unlimited text messaging. It's the cell phone service that was made for kids!
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