When my daughters became preteens, cell phones were the last thing on my mind for a birthday or graduation gift. At 9 or 10 both were preteens in name only. One was still playing with American Girl dolls while the other maintained an extensive collection of High School Musical dolls and accessories. At some point one of my daughter’s friends got a cell phone. Our world changed overnight.
My preteen was fascinated by her friend’s cell phone. She talked about the phone nonstop. She pestered to get her own phone. I could not imagine why the friend’s mom would give her a cell phone. She was in 4th grade at the time.
As 5th grade graduation approached, a few preteens received cell phones as gifts. By the time 6th grade rolled around almost all of my preteen’s friends had cell phones. Many preteens were given cell phones with text messaging capabilities. All I heard during the fall, was how much fun her friend’s were having with their cell phones. Some were texting friends on the school bus. Others were chatting to friends after school.
Against my better judgment, my husband bought our preteen a cell phone for her birthday. I thought she was too young at 12 years old. My husband reasoned that the phone would be useful when she spent the day at her volleyball tournaments. My preteen was ecstatic. I was resigned.
My preteen soon found excuses to call her friends. I should point out that we opted not to activate texting on her phone. She was disappointed, but did not complain as she was excited about having a phone.
All was well until I heard about a texting incident involving some preteens in her grade. One preteen texted another preteen about an issue at school involving a preteen boy and a preteen girl. Within hours, other preteens had jumped on the texting bandwagon. One of the moms was horrified by the language and sexually explicit themes she read in the texts after deciding to investigate the problem she had heard about.
Eighteen months later…my preteen is now a teen who still does not have texting activated on her phone. As hard as it is for my preteen to understand my decisions, as her parent I need to make sure that she is safe.
When not raising a kid, a preteen, and a teen to be safe online, Jill Berry blogs at Musings From Me.
PDF Related posts:
musingsfromme
Jill is a writer who stays at home or a SAHM who writes...it depends on her mood. She blogs about seizing family time one dinner - movie - game night at a time at http://www.musingsfromme.com. When not blogging, she writes about preteens on TypeAParent, and for several other websites. She is the community manager for two local mommy sites and one national site for moms.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Type-A Parent Conference
Type-A Parent Conference 2012 registration is open! Type-A is in its fourth year, and will be held in Charlotte. Find out more at the official conference site.
Get Type-A in Your Inbox
For Companies and Firms
Get sponsorship information for Type-A Parent Conference 2012.
Type-A Parent Founder and CEO Kelby Carr is powered by Keurig K-Cups.
