Who else takes their DC's phone away overnight?

[RealHousewivesOfTaunton]

14yo DS and I have a running battle over this. I make him hand over his iPhone at night and put it on charge in my bedroom. He says none of his friends' parents do this and if perverts, drug dealers, bullies and terrorists want to target him via his phone then they can do it just as well during the day. I tell him that I don't care what his friends' parents do and he needs to be able to sleep without those people having access to his room. Quite apart from him using it to play games at all hours of the night!

Does anyone other parent take away phones overnight, or am I truly the only parent in the universe who does this? Apart from my next door neighbour, who does it too...

I think I'd have taken the phone off him for doing that.. I use family link. Two teens 16 and 13.. no family link no phone 🤷🏻‍♀️
They absolutely moan about it but I'm willing to be the bad guy

Of course you're not the only parent who takes DC's phone away.
Ignore the whining and take it away. One day he'll thank you.
When my son started secondary school he got his first phone. Same for all his new mates. I found out they were texting at 2am.
Phone out of the room, not negotiable. We then talked about his need for sleep. He really did thank me, eventually. It took the pressure off him as his friends knew he couldn't answer after 9pm. I was the bad guy, which obviously I didn't care about, and gave him a cop out not to answer any messages he didn't want to going forward

DD is 16 and DS is nearly 14. Both phones stay downstairs charging overnight as well as my phone. Neither child complains about it, they know that I don't take my phone to bed so it's all fair.

My son had joint custody of his son and until my grandson had done his GCSEs , the rules at his dads house ( my sons) was the phone is on charge in the lounge overnight. In fact all the mobiles in the house were on charge overnight in the lounge. The rules at my grandson's mum's house was , there were no phone rules, but my grandson simply followed the house rules and automatically put his phone on charge before he went to bed when staying at his dads.

None of us take our phones upstairs. They all charge in the kitchen overnight. It's just normal to us and DD (16) has never made any request to do anything different.

Having said that, I realise we're probably slightly old fashioned in having a landline phone and alarm clock beside the bed.

I wish my mum took my phone off me at night when I was a teenager! I've never even heard of parents doing it until this thread but I think it's a great idea to be honest

I don’t take them away per se but they are left downstairs on charge overnight.

Dd is 13 and l do this - she can't be trusted to not go on it! Google family link is pointless so it is the only way l can make sure she isn't on it

phones are not picked up after 8pm (i try and do the same) and 100% handed over before bed. 12&14 year old boys.
i have their passcodes as well but only do fairly sporadic spot checks as never had reason to be concerned so far. until they are adults and paying for their contracts themselves that's the rules.
i also confiscate the phone (mainly from the youngest) when it's clear it's distracting them from a particular job in hand eg putting clothes away or getting bags ready for school.
they also know cheek and rudeness and general unpleasant behaviour around the home will result in phone confiscation for periods appropriate to the misdemeanour.
i had similar as a child but it was the plug on my TV in my room. my dad was adept at removing it very quickly if the need arose.
as per PP who said their kids said they could be groomed etc during the day. that is indeed true but generally my kids are at school with zero phone access during the day and evenings are fairly limited too.
children and young people need boundaries and often ones they don't like at the time for their greater good.

Yes we did. Mine are 19 and 21 now and thank me regularly 😂😂

This. The expectation is no screens in bedrooms.

I had this happen to me at 13-15 ish I think which was a whole 15 odd years ago now and it didn’t kill me. I did used to sneak on the computer that was in the hallway at night though sometimes ans would get shouted at 😂. I’ve got a 3 year old and don’t really know where I stand with that yet.

Nope

Yep. 13 year old has to plug it in to charge in my room overnight. My middle child is ND and liked to have it close so he was allowed it in his room from 14/15 with rules. Eldest child kept hers plugged in overnight until end of GCSEs. I intend on doing the same with 13 year old. I feel like it is a sensible move and they have a good break from it. Sleep is also more important so it helps with that too.

Yes I do for my 13yo and I have screen time limits so most things block at downtime.

It's every parents job to hear repeatedly "you are ruining my life everyone else does it/has it/is going" mine included ruining my son's for not allowing him to go to Piccadilly square new years eve aged 15...now he's older he laughs and says it was a good try though but nobody else went.

I don't because he uses it listen to Aidible to fall asleep. He knows if I catch him using it for other purposes after lights out then I'll take it away.

I ask 18 year old to leave his phone downstairs charging overnight when he goes to bed and has college the next day. He doesn't complain he just does it. Fridays and Saturdays I don't ask him to leave it downstairs but he usually leaves it down anyway.

14 year old Ds's phone shuts down at 8.30. I also limit phone time. He moans and complains bitterly but my job is to be his parent not best mate. He cannot regulate himself and would be on it all hours if given free reign ( we trialled this...)

Yes. It's not about the perverts etc, it's about the sleep. Sleep is important and a phone that is constantly pinging with messages etc all night long will do nothing to help that.

Never took my children’s phone off them at night, also didn’t regulate bedtimes. As long as they were in their rooms for 9pm they could go to sleep whenever they wanted, some people need much more sleep than others.

however I did pay their phone bills so I had access to both their phones until they were 16 and could look at messages , search history without any questions. Both accepted his as a condition that I paid for their phones. I didn’t search it often as I trust my children and trust my guidance.

neither have ever caused us any hassle and they are now 23 and 21.

Yes my older teen reminded my younger teen quite often that he'd be thankful for that rule.

Nope. And after a couple of times of having to get up for schoil in the morning after being in it all night, they learned to self regulate.
But why are you taking it away in school hols?

Our oldest turns 15 in a couple of days and he automatically leaves it in the kitchen each night before bed on charge. Always been the thing in our house no phones in bed or they would stay up all night or till there battery died so never had issues as always done it

Surely you can just manage the use of it through parental controls? This is very easy to do on android and removes the need to physically remove the device at a certain time.