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Teenagers

Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.

Original poster

Time Spent on Mobile Internet

12 replies

27beet · 22/02/2011 00:03

My dd nearly 13, has a Blackberry but is on it most of flipping time. How can i get her back to earth and away from 24/7 cyber chatting? its such a shame, over the last month or so its as if she has lost interest in everything bar her blackberry and BBN messaging mates.
Is it reasonable to limit usage? from the day we got it the one rule i have made is that she doesnt take it to bed at night, so at 9.30pm its switched off and left in the kitchen.

OP posts:
lia66 · 22/02/2011 00:06

My 13 yr ds has to get off his an hopur before bed so 8pm for him. He has to leave it downstairs whenhe goes to bed andI put it under his pillow when I go up, (he has the alarm set for his paper round).

We have to do this as he has no self control. Daytime, he uses it whenever he likes except at meals, no mobiles at table inc me and Dh.

16 dd, has hers whenever she wants as she is good at self limiting and knows when she's tired etc. (except same rules for meals etc)

cat64 · 22/02/2011 00:24

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lia66 · 22/02/2011 00:26

cat some of the messaging services are free with blackberry to blackberry and such like.

My ds pays for his own contract with his paper round money.

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 22/02/2011 00:31

lia66 - how do you stop him waking up and messing around with it during the night??

cat64 · 22/02/2011 00:41

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lia66 · 22/02/2011 09:56

baroque Once ds is asleep, he's asleep. I put it under his pillow well after 10pm. I appreciate not everyone slepps as well as he does though so I guess that may be a problem.

No cat I had misread the post, saw op's dd as 13, not almost 13 Blushso no she couldn't have a paper round yet.

beet fair enough it's left in the kitchen overnight, I'm guesing you're paying for it so your rules.

How about something similar to us, No phone at the table and such like, that would mean everyone.

When you say she's lost interest in everything, what did she do that she doesn't do now?

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 22/02/2011 12:42

fair enough - still wouldn't trust my DS not to wake up in the night and mess around with it

Original poster
27beet · 22/02/2011 14:21

well blackberry does have this free messaging thing called BBN i think which is accessed code. The package i have is pay as you go with O2 with an internet allowance. Its better than a contract.

LIA66, she has lost interest in her jewellry making, card making, piano playing, gymnastics etc which she used to like doing for fun.

I must LOL at the thought of my dd doing a paper round, she is sooooo lazy!

thanks for advice. xx

OP posts:
Original poster
27beet · 22/02/2011 14:21

*accessed by a code

OP posts:
lia66 · 22/02/2011 14:37

thats a shame about her hobbies. Hopefully it'll get less fascinating as she's had it longer, dd is not as obsessed as she used to be, but I realise she is a bit older than your dd.

When I was a kid, we used to write notes to each other , (at home aswell as school) and pass them across, the other person would then reply underneath and pass it back, and so on and so on. IO guess this is the modern version of that. :(

lia66 · 22/02/2011 14:37

so that our parents couldn't listen to what we were saying

laosvher · 22/02/2011 14:43

My 13 year old is the same - but perhaps I'm a bad Mummy because I don't limit usage.
If she's on it all night and can't wake up for school, that's her problem.

If she's misbehaving much then you could take the phone off her for a few days, perhaps without being on it so much she'll rediscover the rest of the world outside her phone and friends.
Though that'd be as a punishment for something, not just randomly taking it off her...

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