How many of you have a 10 yr old WITHOUT a mobile phone???

[drosophila]

DS maintains he is the only one in his year (5) without a mobile phone. Is this likely???

my 10yo DS does not have a mobile phone, neither do the majority of his mates. DS has used an old one of ours a couple of times when we thought it useful, but it only has mine and DH's numbers programmed into it for an emergency.

My 11 year old doesn't have one.
Not until high school.

Panda. That's intersting. Unfortunately I think DS is not wrong about his school mates. I see it myself. I despair

Goober. Is your child unusual in not having one?

Yes.

But I dictate when he has a phone, not his friends.

my 16 year old only uses his now and again

dd1 doesn't. don't think anyone in her class does tbh... if they have she hasn't mentioned it. she isn't having one, anyway

Me! My ds has been told he can have one only when he starts senior school, because that's when he'll be travelling on the school bus etc.

I get told that "everyone" in his year has one, and "it's so unfair!" It's total rubbish.

I have two half brothers who are both year 6, so 10/11. One of them does have a mobile phone and most of his friends do - he was desperate to get one but now doesn't seem to ever have it charged or with him so the novelty has worn off.

My other brother doesn't have one and very few of his friends do, he would quite like one but never enough to want it instead of other things for birthday/xmas etc.

Can you ask some of his friends parents?

My DD just turned 11 and got her first mobile phone for her birthday. I didn't want to wait til Christmas as she is starting secondary school soon and will have a bus journey to school so I wanted her to have one before then but I also wanted it to be a gift and not just bought for her out of the blue. Her older brothers each got them just before they 12 for Christmas in their first years of secondary school.

DD is 10 and doesn't have one, although she wants one.

She claims about 10 of her class of 30 have them, but a lot 'have their mums/dads old one'.

I asked her what she'd do with one if she had one and she said 'er, phone my friends' so I handed her the house phone. I think she's planning a different approach now.

I have to admit to being a bit like Goober but I then start to worry about him being the odd one out. There is a lot of poverty in DS's school and yet there are so many phones.

My 10-yr-old yr 5 DD does not have a mobile phone. Nor do most of her classmates afaik.

Good grief, my 10 year old has barely even used a phone yet, let alone got one of her own! So no, your ds is not the only one. In fact, I have a 12 year old without a phone and a 14 year old who has had a phone since he was 11 (started secondary school) but has only recently started using it at all.

some payg are only a tenner or so and some would see as a necessity, what's poverty got to do with it?

why has mn become so 'you can only buy this if i say so' in the last couple of days?

No,my DS doesn't have one - though he keeps asking.He'll get one when he goes to secondary school,which is what we did with DD as well.

IME the poorest families have the flashiest possessions. I can never understand it.

DS has one of DH's old ones. Like Ewe's half-brother, though, he forgets to charge it or carry it with him. They have to leave it at the school office anyway and pick it up on leaving.

£10 - really. Still it costs to use? That's why I refer to poverty. How can you buy a phone and pay for calls etc if you can't work?

Can I just ask something about the 'they can have one when they start secondary school' idea (which is what I will probably be guided by) ....don't schools tend to ban mobile phones on the premises?

Or is it just that phones can't be switched on on the premises?

DS is Y6 and I bought a cheap payg phone for him to use in Y5. This is because both he and I thought it was a good idea for him to have some more freedom i.e. walking to the local shop, going his own way in town for a little look around the shops etc. He is walking to school in Y6 (about a mile) so keeps it on silent in his bag. He has texted a few people but it's not really been an issue tbh. I see a phone at this age as being totally about communication with me - all the snazzy bells and whistles (and non stop texting ) will come later I know.

He and I are going halves on a new phone for him for Y7. However, I may well encourage him to take the cheap one to school still.

Norbert, schools differ. When my ds1 started school, mobiles were banned. Then last year, I turned up for a meeting with ds1 and his tutor and ds1 was nowhere to be found. The woman on reception asked me if he had his mobile with him so I could ring him to find out where he was. I was astonished to be asked that and said but surely they are not allowed them in school? Apparently the school could not stop the children bringing their mobiles so accepted they had them. Since then, the official rule has changed and they are allowed their mobiles in school but are not allowed to text during lessons (another rule that is ignored as far as I can understand from my sons )

they're quite handy when your dc's start going out and about in the evening, unless you don't let them or chaperone them everywhere, though even then it's handy in case of change of plans etc

At DD's school they are allowed phones in school but they must be off in school hours.
Camera phones were banned,and having a camera phone meant confiscation of phone,and I think, suspension(we are law abiding types so never got to test this out!)
They've got a new headteacher now and apparantly all this is going to change...

ah, so it sounds as if schools have accepted that children will take phones into school then.
Thanks