To ask if your 14 year old has their phone overnight?

[Usermoniker]

Recurring argument in our house.

Yabu = my 14 year old has/had their phone all night

Yanbu = yes, they leave phone out of room/I pry it from their surprisingly strong hands each night

Yes. But at that age I could look at their screen time hours as their account was linked to mine, so I knew if they were taking the piss. One was fairly sensible and went to sleep when tired, the other would be up silly late and be grumpy the next day but has mainly grown out of it during the week.

I used to wait until my parents were asleep and secretly watch telly (Prisoner Cell Block H!) with the subtitles on so they didn’t hear and I’d be grumpy as hell next day. Teenagers need to learn some consequences so pick your battles wisely and save your concern/annoyance for the bigger things.

No she doesn't. She'd be on it all night! It charges in the living room or in my bedroom overnight.

Mine have their phones but the downtime kicks in at 10pm so they are basically bricks apart from to set an alarm or to make a call to a family member

Fuck no.

No phone, no iPad and no laptop. We eventually resorted to a lock box with a hole drilled into it for the devices to charge overnight. I had to hide the key somewhere different every night as she would search for it. And dd is a good kid but she was still enthralled by the things.

I think we removed devices at 8.30 during term and 9.30 in the holidays. I know that is considered early but time without devices is vital.

During the October holiday before she turned sixteen, she naturally self regulated so we left it with her.

Nope. All devices are in my room overnight. Teens under eighteen don’t have mobiles tbh, they have an Apple Watch instead.

Like pp but downtime is set from 10.30 until morning- so she can’t do anything with it except music, phone call to family & alarm

Absolutely not, under any circumstances.

No, but mainly because she’s not bothered by her phone, barely remembers to charge it, has to be reminded to take it out with her, and has an annoying habit of turning it off when she’s out (to save the battery because she’s forgotten to charge it).

He has it BUT it’s an iPhone linked to mine so I control it and have screen limits set. Ditto with his PlayStation, switch and internet. I control through our internet provider his allowed times so he will be cut off at certain points. So he technically has it but it’s very restricted past 8pm and pretty much locked down from 10pm.

15 year old DS has to leave it up around 10 pm

Why would a fourteen-year-old need to have a phone overnight? I assume he or she is not a member of the emergency services.

Nope , not at 14. Phone was in our room in charge (used to be downstairs but he'd go to the loo, downstairs bathroom, and be on it until caught!)
Use BT parental controls to switch iff all electronics but he also managed to bypass thise by changing his MAC address (i think). Lost lots of privileges and id randomly change the password so he couldn't access with out asking for new password. He quickly worked out it wasn't worth it!

Ha ha I used to do this, with a massive pair of headphones. No idea what I watched. I was never grumpy the next day.

I wish someone would take my phone off me now.

Nope, nor does my sixteen year old.

Downtime is set from 10pm for my 15yo. Apparently they are the only person in the world who has to live under this harsh rule 😅 I can see from family link that they haven't figured out how to override this.

At 14 my DC left their phones downstairs overnight. Now they're 16, 18 and 20 and they have their phones in their rooms. The cutoff was around 16 for us.

Mine weren’t allowed phones over night until they had finished their GCSE’s.

Yes, because they listen to audio book to sleep.

I always check in before I go to sleep ans they're asleep before me so inknow they're not on it. Theyre genuinely very good at regulating their screen time usage

I collect all devices from about 8.30. I don't have to prise them, they are in the routine of it. I charge them and they get them back once dressed for school with tidy ish rooms etc. I want to collect them in for a few hours during the evening too as they are slaves to them and nothing gets done.

Mine had their phones, and self regulated. Both did extremely well in school, no issues getting up. Depends on the child I say.

Not 14 yet but no they won't be. Sleep is too important.

Nightly argument but I don’t care!! If I left it with him he’d stay on it (as I do sometimes!!)

My older two children were able to be trusted with their phones. My youngest is now a teen and I collect all of his devices at 9pm and he is still a pain to drag out of bed in the morning.

Yes my teens do and have since they got it at 12. It's theirs, and they like to listen to music to fall asleep and use it for alarms and reminders for the next morning. I've never restricted phone or computer use as I didn't want to make it into a big special thing. They aren't that bothered and mostly just use it for music.

No, it stays downstairs overnight. He’s not bothered, it never been an argument. He’s often on video calls with his friends during the evenings so I might let him stay on it a bit later at weekends but he still will bring it down when he goes to bed.

He was asking for Tik Tok last night as he is “the only one that doesn’t have it”. I resisted but said I’ll have another think when he’s in year 10. Not sure on that one, need to explore how I can control/monitor what he watches.