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Original poster

do all of your 9 year olds have mobile phones?

84 replies

thighslapper · 07/06/2011 14:58

Conversation with a pal whos 9 year old is the only kid in his class without one......some of them have one of those iphone jobbies (are they not fortunes???)

I ask as ds told me that aged 7 he was the only kid to NOT have a nintendo ds....

NOW he tells me he is the only kid to NOT have a pet in his class..

Pal tells me she is thinking of getting her boy a mobile..

How do you not make them too different from their peers, BUT how the hell do you draw a sensible line in the sand and say ENOUGH???

OP posts:
Batteryhuman · 07/06/2011 15:37

AKAIK none of my DS's year 4 class have phones. He will get one at the end of year 6 before he starts travelling on the bus to senior school.

He does have a DS and we do have 2 dogs and a cat though.

pink4ever · 07/06/2011 15:39

Thank god I am not the only cruel mother!! I was really shocked when talking to some other mums and all their kids have mobiles(dcs aged 8/9). Although my son has asked for one I see little point as he only plays right outside house,not allowed them in school etc. Plus he struggles with answering the home phone so doubt he would master a mobile!.
Reminds me of the conversation I had with another friend(dc also 8) before xmas about what the children were getting from santa.My son was getting a new bike and some football strips. Her son was getting an i-phone and a new laptopShock. I just think sadly it is all part and parcel of the whole growing up far too quickly situation we are in.

ddubsgirl · 07/06/2011 15:41

i would buy my 9 yr olds a phone,they do like filming themselves on the trampoline tho lol!they have made some funny vids.

Bogeyface · 07/06/2011 15:42

My 9 year old doesnt have one, she will get one the summer before she starts high school, so 2 years time. Her sister got hers at the same time.

Its about half and half in her class and she hasnt made a fuss about it, one girl in her class had one at 6 which was totally pointless as none of her friends had them so she had no one to call on it!

ddubsgirl · 07/06/2011 15:42

opps wouldnt buy that should say!doh!

CheerMum · 07/06/2011 15:43

dd has had her own mobile phone since she was 6, though she only uses it as a toy (like phoning me when i am in the passenger seat of the car and she is on the backseat hehe) i am on contract so she gets a new phone when my contract gets renewed as i like to buy my own phone. she is on payg and probably uses £2.50 per year.

she had an ipod at 7 and a better ipod at 9. she has had a ds for years too. she has her own laptop but we home educate so that's more of an educational tool rather than a toy.

she has had her own pet since 6 too, rats and a guinea pig so far.

i've not had the "everyone else..." line yet but will be going with the "if everyone else jumped off a cliff would you jump to" reply.

bonkers20 · 07/06/2011 15:47

They and you just have to learn that "that's the way it is".
Mine got a mobile for his 11th Birthday - 6 months before secondary school.
He has no large games console, we have no pets. He will only be allowed facebook when he's 13.

He's just learnt to "blame" his parents for things. At the age he is now (12) his friendships are becoming less about who's got what, but more about personality similarities, sharing a sense of humour...just having a good time together.

He does have an mp3 player (with little screen for iplayer downloads etc), and Converse high tops though!

ddubsgirl · 07/06/2011 15:47

we have dog,cat & newt lol

takeonboard · 07/06/2011 15:50

my DS age 9 had my old one on a pay as you go but he is one of only a few in his class (he doesn't have it any longer as he left it in his pocket at the weekend and it no longer works after a good wash and extra long spin cycle!!!).

Don't be pressured by the "everyone else has one" line it isn't true at all.

bigTillyMint · 07/06/2011 15:51

NO!

DD got her £10 phone just before she started secondary school. She would like to update it for her 12th birthday - maybe a £50 one. She is on a pay as you go £5 a month, free texts tariff.

DS is 10 and won't be getting one till he is starting sec school, unless he persuaded his sister to give him his old one!

This is not because we can't afford it, but is because we don't believe primary-school age children need mobile phones. They both have ipod nano's for their music and DS's.

ChasingSquirrels · 07/06/2011 15:52

ds is 8 (9 in Sep) and doesn't have a phone and I have no intention of him having one in the short-term. He sometimes comes home from school on his own, plays out in the immediate area and is allowed to the park on his own (though rarely goes).

He has his own digital camera (had my parents old one as an xmas present when he was 4, it broke last year and he brought himself a replacement).

He would dearly love a ds and so I have said I will go halves with him on a 3DS for his 9th birthday present.

We have a family Wii that he, I and his younger brother (though ds2 had no say in the matter!) all went 1/3rd on approx 2 years ago.

We have a family PC that is mainly used by the boys as I have my own laptop.

He has a pet hamster that we got in January when he asked if he could have one, he is pretty good at handling her and cleaning her out when I remind him.

madwomanintheattic · 07/06/2011 15:59

my 9yo doesn't have a phone, neither does my 11yo.

the 11yo does have an ipod touch, but she saved up for it herself and bought if after two years of birthday and pocket money. my 7yo has a nano that she saved up for in the same way - after a year she had enough money to buy one and they had just bought out the new tiny thing and discontinued the old one, so she didn't have enough money. it took us two weeks to find a stockist that still had the old style nano. Grin

all of them will be travelling on school buses in september though, so the jury is still out on that. i hadn't anticipated buying phones though tbh. none of them have ever asked.

Asinine · 07/06/2011 16:00

Ds9 doesn't have one, but he was teaching my aunt how to text the other day...

In our family they get them on the birthday before secondary school. So ds10 will get his at end of year 6.

zukiecat · 07/06/2011 16:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AlmightyCitrus · 07/06/2011 16:07

DD2 got one for her 9th birthday (DH's old contract phone, which is quite a good one) but she does some activities which tend not to have a set finishing time, so it's really just so she can ring and tell us she needs collecting. She has a couple of friends who she sends the occasional text to, but she's still using the initial £10 credit we put on there almost a year ago.

cannydoit · 07/06/2011 16:07

no she has been bugging me since she was about 8 for one but i have resisted because i just think its wrong. she can have one when she goes to secondary school, thats what i told her.

JamieAgain · 07/06/2011 16:10

My 10 year old doesn't have one. About 4 children in his class do. 3 of them are girls.

When he goes to secondary I may get a cheap mobile that basically stays at home unless he's likely to be out and about after school, or at the weekends not "his" phone IYSWIM

enidroach · 07/06/2011 16:17

My almost 9 year old does not have a mobile (he has absolutely no need for one) and I doubt many children in his class do. My other 3 only got the cheapest PAYG mobiles when they started secondary to let me know if they would be late or if there was trouble on the buses. The only younger children I know who have mobiles have parents who don't collect them from school and who no longer go to aftercare (year 5 and 6) and so use the phone to let their parents know they got back home safely etc.

I think younger children often tell fibs about what they have or what they have seen etc.

petal2008 · 07/06/2011 16:21

My DS had one when he was in year 8 I think. Def no need till they go to high school.

PandaG · 07/06/2011 16:26

neither my 9yo or my 11 yo have a mobile - the 11 yo says that since CHristmas he is the only one in his class without one, and I am inclined to believe him on this. We will get him a cheap payg shortly, so he has got used to it before secondary school in September.

Both DC have borrowed old phones of ours when it has been useful for us to be able to contact them - when we have been at a big festival when they were free range for example.

piratecat · 07/06/2011 16:29

dd is nine and i've not heard of anyone in her class having one.

she will prob get one when she goes up to big school.

everyone has a nintendo ds tho!

OddBoots · 07/06/2011 16:34

ds got a cheap payg aged 10 at the end of his Y6 SATs, dd will get one about the same time ready for going to secondary school.

streakybacon · 07/06/2011 16:38

Ds got his first mobile phone at the beginning of this year, age 12. Up to then he borrowed the 'house mobile' if he was going out on his own. He earned his own phone as a reward for successfully working on his problems and becoming more independent (Asperger's).

He has a Nintendo DS that's so old we've had enquiries from the British Museum Smile. He won't get an update unless he pays for it himself [hard bitch].

AngryFeet · 07/06/2011 16:44

Not there yet with my kids but if they were going out alone to park or whatever at that age then I would allow a very very cheap calls only phone on pay as you go in case of emergencies. If it is just to keep up with the joneses I would say no. No way in hell would I allow a child an iphone until much older. The chances of them getting mugged would be too high.

AandK · 07/06/2011 17:20

My 9 year old son does have one but not to keep up with peer pressure. His father and I are not together and its an easier way for his side of the family to contact him. Also ds's grandad works away so they text each other quite often which I think is brilliant for them to know about each others lives. I also feel its a great safety aspect. If he's playing at the park around the corner and there's a problem its easy for him to contact me. He is the only one in his class to have one but we do live in a small village so maybe less pressure :)

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