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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

iphones in year 5?

74 replies

tripletrouble · 16/01/2012 23:31

My DS (year 5) was late out of school today because he was looking at a classmates new iphone4 ( the new one). DS's eyes were big with excitement and I could tell that he was wishing that he had one too. AIBU to think that 9 is too young to have a new iphone? Nine-year-olds should be kicking footballs around and playing games!! It just puts pressure on parents who can't afford the latest gadgets for themseves let alone their children, and makes the children who haven't got them unhappy!

OP posts:
wannaBe · 16/01/2012 23:33

nine is too young for a mobile phone full stop.

EmpressOfTheSevenOceans · 16/01/2012 23:37

YANBU. DD (yr 6) got a mobile when she started walking to school on her own. Admittedly she also inherited DP's old iphone 3 but it has a PAYG sim in with no credit on so can only be used for games and wifi. She'd absolutely love an up to date working iphone and she can have one - when she can pay for it!

Boomerwang · 16/01/2012 23:39

I wouldn't give a 9 year old an iphone. I would make sure they had a phone but not one as expensive as that. If it wasn't good enough for some reason (possible target for materialistic jerks) I'd tell him/her to hide it during schooltime. I think most schools ban the use of phones anyway don't they?

I would want to give my child anything they wanted and I'm aware of the teasing that goes on (I had fake doc martens at school and everyone wearing the real deal laughed at me) but iphones cost too much and I'd never allow a contract for a child's use.

squeakytoy · 16/01/2012 23:39

Part of life to learn that just because someone else has something more expensive and better, doesnt mean you can have it.

I agree though, it is too young, and considering all the increased disruption to classes, as well as bullying that goes on with the internet as the media for channelling it, phones for kids really should be limited to being just that, a phone, for emergency use. Not a mini computer. Carrying expensive gadgets also makes a child a target for being mugged too, which would be my main worry if my child had an expensive or sought after phone.

MilkNoSugarAndAShotofWhisky · 16/01/2012 23:40

Are you a parent at our school?! My Y5 charge was also late out today as she was also looking at a classmates Iphone 4S!

It's nuts!

startail · 16/01/2012 23:42

I refuse to shell out for an iPhone contract. The DDs are certainly not having one.

Helenagrace · 16/01/2012 23:46

My 10yo is coveting my iPhone. Her chances of getting it are the same as the chances of the moon switching shifts with the sun.

She had the cheapest phone in Carphone Warehouse (£6.99) until she spent her birthday money on a new android phone.

She only has a phone at all because get school is a 12 mile coach trip away.

An expensive phone is a huge responsibility for a child.

Helenagrace · 16/01/2012 23:47

Get school??

her school.

Flibble80 · 16/01/2012 23:49

You're not unreasonable. A child has no use for something like an iPhone other than as a fashion accessory. It's pretty shameful that parents teach ideals like that.

K999 · 17/01/2012 00:03

Dd1 (12) has an iPhone. So do I. As she spends half her time at exDHs we use them to face time each other. Smile

yellowraincoat · 17/01/2012 00:06

YANBU

What the hell does a 9 year old need an iphone for? It's just teaching people to rely on stuff they don't need - almost everyone I know has them and spends their life staring at the screen instead of talking to people.

I don't have one and don't really want one.

K999 · 17/01/2012 00:09

As opposed to not staring at a screen, whilst MNing, not talking to people? Grin

PS I use my phone to MN too!

yellowraincoat · 17/01/2012 00:10

Bit different sitting in the house chilling out on mumsnet and sitting in the pub with your mates on your phone.

stepout99 · 17/01/2012 03:14

my 8 year old has a mobile phone but its pay as you go, and only has it because both my kids do competitive dancing and spends a lot of time at dancing and it always runs over, so they ring me when they need picking up! and it happens to be an iphone but thats only because its my old iphone and its the first iphone they brought out so really old!

stepout99 · 17/01/2012 03:15

oh and its never taken to school!!

TheCatInTheHairnet · 17/01/2012 03:29

My 10 year old has the iPhone 4. In my mind, it just adds a phone to the iTouch. I don't really care whether other people think he should have it or not, tbh.

troisgarcons · 17/01/2012 06:45

The 6yo (not Y6) over the road got one for christmas.~~I got my Y6 a Rio -
No way was I shelling out for a blackberry, which is what the kiddies want.

It's the games they want - it's far more than a phone these days/

Bunbaker · 17/01/2012 07:04

Ridiculous! DD had a cheap mobile phone at age 10 because I started letting her go out on her own to call on friends and I wanted her to to feel she could contact me if she needed to. She now has an Orange Barcelona (Blackberry lookalike, but cheaper, with Android OS) because she is at high school and PAYG wouldn't cover all the texting she does.

Groovee · 17/01/2012 07:05

I reluctantly got dd a blackberry in October when her phone died. But on the contract she had, it was cheaper to get a blackberry than pay out for a new phone.

My friends have given their old iphones to their children. TBH what other parents do is up to them. Just like me getting dd a blackberry was our business.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 17/01/2012 07:25

I am almost 48 and have the cheapest most basic Nokia. DH is almost 55 and has the same. Both of us would like an iPhone, him more than me admittedly.
It is madness to give something so expensive to a child IMO.
OP, YANBU.

troisgarcons · 17/01/2012 07:28

I dont have a smart phone because I detest phones [gron] so long as it makes and receives calls, does the odd text, thats all I need. However I'm not that old that I don't understand the generation behind me is far more media savvy and their world is populated by such devices I haven't a clue how to comprehend.

LoremIpsum · 17/01/2012 07:30

Meh, all three of mine have iPhones. They're 10, 11 and 12, so slightly older. The phones are for the bus trip to and from school, DS1's is a 4 that his uncle didn't need, DS2 and DD have 3s that are hand me downs. They're all on pre-paid.

They have always been shiny eyed at friends' ds style game things but never had one. Lusting after someone else's gadgets is just part of growing up.

LadyGahGah · 17/01/2012 07:30

I'm kind of in the middle on this. If parents are mad enough to give a child something so expensive then they have no right to get angry when said child loses/swaps/drops down toilet/[insert typical child thing to do here]. As children do break things all the time. So if you want to, buy one...but then don't complain when it gets broken

toddlerama · 17/01/2012 07:34

YABU to say that 9 is 'too' young. Sure, it's young, but if you don't like it just don't give your son one. You can't complain that someone else has one! That's absurd and none of your beeswax.

FWIW, my sister let my nephew play with her old one when she got an upgrade and there were so many toddlery games he loved, she let him keep it for a year. He was 2. Obviously he didn't use it to make calls, but when he was at home with wifi we skyped him and he loved it. Technology for children isn't the bogeyman.

HSMM · 17/01/2012 07:51

My DD age 12, yr8, got a Blackberry for Christmas when her contract was due for renewal. She has been told, if she loses it, breaks it, or whatever, she is back with her old black £10 phone. She travels a fair distance to school on public transport and is away from home alot dancing, so I like her to have a phone.

She has always wanted whatever 'everyone' else has, but has not always got it.

She needed the old PAYG phone and doesn't need the new flashy phone with a contract.