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Started By
Message
Cell Phone for an 11 year old
Posted on 5/15/19 at 12:00 pm
Posted on 5/15/19 at 12:00 pm
It appears that as my oldest kid heads off to middle school in the fall, we are going to get her a cell phone. I'm not a fan of this, but it seems like she is the only kid (i'm not joking) in her 5th grade class without one. Plus, in middle school, she will have to stay after school at least 2 days a week for cheer practice, and is spending more time with her friends, etc.
It appears I have lost this battle to the wife, who wants to get her one.
We are going with Sprint since me and the wife already have Sprint and the cost to add another line to our plan isn't much at all.
The issue is the phone. Wife and I have still have our phones from the "old days" where the phone was free with a contract. Neither of us are under any contracts currently. We both have iPhones (I have a 4, she has a 6, don't laugh too hard). Wife seems to be dead set against the whole lease phone concept, and just wants to buy a phone outright.
iPhone prices for outright purchases are stupid high.
So I guess I have two questions... for those of you with middle schoolers or high schoolers with a phone:
1) Did you buy it outright or did you lease it?
2) Did you go with an apple product or something else?
It appears I have lost this battle to the wife, who wants to get her one.
We are going with Sprint since me and the wife already have Sprint and the cost to add another line to our plan isn't much at all.
The issue is the phone. Wife and I have still have our phones from the "old days" where the phone was free with a contract. Neither of us are under any contracts currently. We both have iPhones (I have a 4, she has a 6, don't laugh too hard). Wife seems to be dead set against the whole lease phone concept, and just wants to buy a phone outright.
iPhone prices for outright purchases are stupid high.
So I guess I have two questions... for those of you with middle schoolers or high schoolers with a phone:
1) Did you buy it outright or did you lease it?
2) Did you go with an apple product or something else?
9
Posted on 5/15/19 at 12:08 pm to LSUFanHouston
My daughter is 12. We started with pre-paid service on an old iPhone we had already until she showed responsibility. She's always been responsible, so that only lasted a few months.
She now was the iPhone XR because it was free with the purchase of another and my wife needed a new phone. I fought it, but it's honestly made our life a little easier. She's home alone for about an hour once a week in the afternoon and it's reassuring knowing she can easily be reached if we need her, or if she needs us.
Ask around among your friends if you don't want to buy her a brand new one. It's likely someone has an old one sitting in a drawer that can be used.
She now was the iPhone XR because it was free with the purchase of another and my wife needed a new phone. I fought it, but it's honestly made our life a little easier. She's home alone for about an hour once a week in the afternoon and it's reassuring knowing she can easily be reached if we need her, or if she needs us.
Ask around among your friends if you don't want to buy her a brand new one. It's likely someone has an old one sitting in a drawer that can be used.
Posted on 5/15/19 at 12:12 pm to The Spleen
quote:
We started with pre-paid service on an old iPhone we had already until she showed responsibility.
Explain to me how pre-paid phones work because I don't understand it and I haven't been able to figure it out looking online - I understand you pay in advance, is that the only difference?
We don't have any old phones lying around but yeah asking around might be a good idea.
quote:
She's home alone for about an hour once a week in the afternoon and it's reassuring knowing she can easily be reached if we need her, or if she needs us.
Yeah, I don't think she is going to end up being home alone after school right now, but she's getting to an age where she can probably be left alone for a bit here and there, and we don't have a home phone.
Posted on 5/15/19 at 12:26 pm to LSUFanHouston
quote:
Explain to me how pre-paid phones work because I don't understand it and I haven't been able to figure it out looking online - I understand you pay in advance, is that the only difference?
Pretty much. I was concerned with data usage so wanted to monitor that before putting her on a plan where we could get hit with a huge bill because of data overages. With pre-paid, once allocated data is used, that's it. No overage concerns.
It's probably different depending on where you live, but every single kid here has an iPhone. Daughter joked that she'd be bullied if she brought an Android to school. She is not allowed any social media, and only a couple of her friends have an Instagram account so she's not missing much.
Posted on 5/15/19 at 12:42 pm to LSUFanHouston
My oldest has a $150 Moto and my twins have $100 Blu phones. The oldest and one of the twins have lines on our prepaid account.
Posted on 5/15/19 at 4:06 pm to junkfunky
quote:
$100 Blu phones
Any issues? I know in the past they had some security concerns around BLU devices but I haven't heard anything of late
Posted on 5/15/19 at 6:58 pm to LSUFanHouston
Just buy Moto G6 Play and put some prepaid minutes on there.
Best Buy
You can install apps that give you full control of what's installed on the phone and such. I think you can make it so it only gets online on wifi.
Best Buy
You can install apps that give you full control of what's installed on the phone and such. I think you can make it so it only gets online on wifi.
Posted on 5/15/19 at 7:25 pm to LSUFanHouston
My kid is about the same age and she got a cell phone for Christmas. Our issue was that she is old enough to stay home by herself sometimes now and we don't have a home phone. We gave her my wife's iPhone and got her another one.
Posted on 5/15/19 at 8:10 pm to LSUFanHouston
(no message)
This post was edited on 5/16/19 at 5:56 am
Posted on 5/15/19 at 8:19 pm to LSUFanHouston
quote:
Any issues? I know in the past they had some security concerns around BLU devices but I haven't heard anything of late
Nope
Posted on 5/16/19 at 7:21 am to LSUFanHouston
My daughter has been addicted to electronics since she was 11, she’s 17 now and growing out of it a little. I lost the battle with my wife regarding the phone for an 11 year old. If someone ask my wife about it now, she responds by telling them it’s the worst thing we ever did. Google cell phone or electronics addiction in kids, it’s real I promise.
Everyone is different I know, but once a child is plugged in it’s hard to unplug them.
She will want social media in the near future once she has a phone.
You can TRY to limit their use but kids are very slick these days with these devices, if your daughter can’t figure it out, most likely her friends have it figured out & will show her work arounds on parental controls.
Like I said every case is different & I wish you the best.
Everyone is different I know, but once a child is plugged in it’s hard to unplug them.
She will want social media in the near future once she has a phone.
You can TRY to limit their use but kids are very slick these days with these devices, if your daughter can’t figure it out, most likely her friends have it figured out & will show her work arounds on parental controls.
Like I said every case is different & I wish you the best.
Posted on 5/16/19 at 10:29 am to LSUFanHouston
Usually there's a promo with adding a new line and you'll get a new phone for free or significantly discounted. Check promos with Sprint and either upgrade your iPhone 4 or take advantage to get her phone paid for. Do some research on the promo and go in-person to answer any of the questions above, it's pretty painless.
This post was edited on 5/16/19 at 10:30 am
Posted on 5/16/19 at 9:18 pm to LSUFanHouston
a jitterbug. that's gonna be my kids phone. 
Posted on 5/16/19 at 9:38 pm to LSUFanHouston
I would look first into deals that work with upgrading y'alls phones and giving your daughter the iPhone 6. If not you can buy an iPhone on Swappa. I'm sure most of her classmates have iPhones and she wants to "fit in", and I wouldn't get her the latest phone either if I was her dad right away. Here is the iPhones on Swappa for Sprint:LINK
This post was edited on 5/16/19 at 9:42 pm
Posted on 5/17/19 at 8:23 am to 805tiger
have a 12 yo daughter and we're still holding out on getting her a phone. probably going to happen over the summer though. i'd love to get her a flip phone but don't think mama will go for it
Posted on 5/17/19 at 10:01 am to Coater
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