Is 10 Yr-Old Too Young For A Cell Phone?

Every year, kids have an item on their list - the item - the one they want so bad they can taste it. As times change, so do the items. It used to be a ColecoVision, a Furby, or a Wii. What is the item on your child's list this year? My kids are slowly making their lists, but the one thing that my 10 year-old keeps mentioning is a cell phone.

I know that many of you are having similar situations going on at your houses, evidenced by the back and forth Twitter banter I see and conversations that I overhear in the teacher's lounge. Now, I don't have any answers for you, but I thought that maybe we could all discuss this together. I'll start with my list of cons first...

Cons (these are all my very humble opinions)

1. Michael is ten. 'Nuff said.

2. Michael loses the iPod Touch that his Aunt and Uncle gave him this year for his birthday. Weekly, it seems. I actually looked for a clapper for the thing last week.

3. Ten year olds (in general) aren't responsible enough to remember to keep their cell phone with them, turn it to silent when necessary, and then turn it back on. To me, that means it's not reliable.

4. While having a friend sleep over this summer, the friend received 10-15 prank calls on his cell phone beginning at 8 p.m. and lasting until I took the phone away and turned it off about an hour later. I understand this isn't the friend's fault, but this is a perfect example of what 10 year old kids do.

5. I drop Michael off at school (2 miles from our house) and pick him up after school. On days that I work, we have lunch together. After school, he does homework, plays with friends outside, and then has dinner, family time, and goes to bed. When would he even have an opportunity to use the phone?

Pros (again, my opinions)

1. On the two or three occasions per month that Michael sleeps at a friend's house or takes a bike ride out on the desert trails, it would be nice for him to be able to call if he needs something.... like a snake catcher.

2. We don't have family near us in Tucson, and the kids suffer a little because of that. When I talk to my mother, I'm not good about handing over the phone to the kids. To be honest, I don't think about it. If Michael had his own cell phone, I imagine it would be used to call family most of the time.

3. We are paying for an extra phone anyway. Two years ago, my husband wanted a Blackberry. A few months later, his work gave him one. Now, we are paying for an extra line on our account while the phone sits in the junk drawer.

4. (This is my husband's point, but I thought I would share). Does it really matter? What's the harm in giving him a cell phone, as long as the internet is off and voice minutes and texting are controlled? We're in a position to give him the one thing he wants (and has been asking for for at least a year), so why don't we just do it?

5. Maybe this is a good time to start teaching cell phone responsibility. Is it a necessary subject? That's debatable, and I'm sure it could wait a few years. Michael is the only one in his circle of friends without a cell phone, and I would rather he learn about how to respectfully and responsibly use one from his parents rather than by watching his friends.

I waver between telling myself "absolutely not, he's TEN" to "really, what's the harm?" several times a day. I have no idea how to proceed, and I can't tell you if there will be a little Verizon box for Michael under our tree this year.

I do know that it has started a lot of conversations between Michael, my husband, and I. And whether he gets a cell phone or not this year, he has been learning about how to discuss issues respectfully, and the power of persuasion.

A side note: When I gave Michael my list of cons, he said, "Mom, they're good points. You must have thought about them a lot." To me, that's worth the discussion right there.

Now it's our turn to discuss. Tell me what your tweens and teens are asking for this holiday season. Do you have any reservations about buying anything on their list? Do your tweens have cell phones? How old were they when you bought them? Did you struggle with the decision?