3 year old with Phone..SERIOUSLY?

[LostMyMarbles]

Breatfast time.....all is well.....kids are laughing and eating. One still lingers at the table. I hear music. I'm thinking, wth. I look around, see nothing out of the ordinary. Then I see this strange arm movement from lingering table child. He apparently had a contraband phone on him. He whipped it out and was playing a dirt bike game, and his score was amazing. Clearly he plays this ALOT. But not on my watch!!!!

I walked over to him, took the phone without saying a word, and put it in his cubical.

This is the infamous phone I hear about from mom. He has a fit at night for this phone. She gives it to him. He plays on it till after 11pm. He is 3.

Helll to the No. Did I mention he is 3.

[Cat Herder]

Sounds like this kid needs some time in Woz U instead of on games. :: Maybe get his mom to check out https://www.livescience.com/53957-be...-and-toys.html.

[Unregistered]

OMG!!! Screen addiction at age 3! Ugh!!!

[Ariana]

Aaaaand the mother of the year award goes to.....

[Josiegirl]

Argh, anything to keep their child seen but not heard. Just think of the teenager she'll be dealing with if she can't say no at 3.

OP, did dcb scream a fit when you took it away?

[LostMyMarbles]

Argh, anything to keep their child seen but not heard. Just think of the teenager she'll be dealing with if she can't say no at 3.

OP, did dcb scream a fit when you took it away?

No screaming whatsoever. I told him I am in charge of what goes on in this house and he does not get to have his phone here ever. He looked at me and said okay

[HappyEverAfter]

That’s just sad. Why in the heck would you let your 3 yr old stay up until 11pm? And why would they have a phone? It’s just sad.

[TheMisplacedMidwestMom]

That’s just sad. Why in the heck would you let your 3 yr old stay up until 11pm? And why would they have a phone? It’s just sad.

I have a two-year old that goes to bed at 11, because "she doesn't want to" and they can't seem to "make" her go to bed earlier. Here her head hits the nap mat and she is out, then I have to drag her out of nap time long after everyone else is awake.

[CeriBear]

What? A 3 year old with a phone! :confused::confused:
And I thought my friend was being far too lenient when she gave her 11 year old a smart phone for Christmas with the excuse that he needed it to communicate with her or his dad in case ball practice or Boy Scouts was cancelled. I can see the need for a phone as her son was involved in a lot of sports and extracurricular activities but what about a basic cell phone that just had phone service and texting.

[mamamanda]

My 6 yo randomly announced "I think I'm old enough for a smart phone" the other day. My immediate response: Absolutely not. I have many moral/ethical/just feel its plain old bad parenting type issues with giving a child a cell phone. However I went with the response I knew would nip it in the bud for him. When he asked why not I said, "Are you able to commit to paying me $50 every single month to pay for this phone??"

He said, "How would I get that much money?"
"You'd have to give up your play time & get a job where you can work several hours every week."

Long pause..."Maybe I'm not old enough for a smart phone."
:: Ya think?

[Mike]

My 6 yo randomly announced "I think I'm old enough for a smart phone" the other day. My immediate response: Absolutely not. I have many moral/ethical/just feel its plain old bad parenting type issues with giving a child a cell phone. However I went with the response I knew would nip it in the bud for him. When he asked why not I said, "Are you able to commit to paying me $50 every single month to pay for this phone??"

He said, "How would I get that much money?"
"You'd have to give up your play time & get a job where you can work several hours every week."

Long pause..."Maybe I'm not old enough for a smart phone."
:: Ya think?

That was a good one. Too bad more parents didn't do that. To a lot of parents, it's just an easy way to keep their child off their back and busy.

[pintsize]

3 is definitely to young. my 3 month old wont be getting one until he's at least 4. Kidding, only kidding. But my other kids do have phones. They are 7 and 10.

10 year old is in sports year around where he's dropped off and picked up for practices, mom doesn't always hang around anymore, he walks to grandmas after school and is sometimes there home alone for an hour, and sleeps over at friends houses once or twice a month. He also uses it to play games and watch youtube. I have an app that tracks everything he does as well as his location so I can see when he gets to my moms after school, every time he opens an app, sends a text, makes a phone call, searches something on google I know about it. the app also limits him (youtube only works for 60 minutes a day, nothing works except the clock past 8pm etc.)

My 7 year old only got one because we were driving 24 hours each way to Disney and I wanted him to be quiet and the phone was cheaper than a tablet. His phone no longer has service, he's not allowed to take it to school or anywhere and it has the same limitiations that his brothers phone does as far as not being allowed to sit there an watch wwe wrestling videos on youtube all day long!

[LostMyMarbles]

Its moms old phone..just for games for him. But still. I am responsible for your child not things they sneak in .

[BrynleeJean]

good night.
i think i think like most of you that its not that its a gateway to the internet or anything bad, but that the giving of a phone is the giving of 1. a bad habit yes but also just giving in as a parent and basically saying, nope your right child, you make the rules, what do you want tell me and i do it.
NOPE i don't believe in that.
Im the parent your the child .period.
i think i learned this in my years of childcare honestly. i was just talking to my husband about this because he can be more of the lenient one and I'm more of the other obviously. I said i think its because i was trained in rooms with ratios of 1:25 and you can't give every kid what they want or let even one walk all over you, you show them your in charge, not in a mean way but a secure, authoritative way, kids need that, or all H*%& breaks loose, and it doesn't benefit the child at all.