Family on the Phone

Today, my fiancee came home with a story about a call he took while he was at work today. A parent called in because her daughter had dropped the phone in some water. They didn’t have insurances on the phone, so the mom was trying to figure out what their options were for getting for replacing the phone.

They were offered an early upgrade or a certified pre-owned phone. The mom was going to go for the pre-owned certified phone but the daughter had other ideas. Apparently, she was very vocal about the phone she should get. She thought she should have the phone of her choice – which happened to be a Blackberry Curve.

The mom wasn’t sure about what she wanted to do, so she asked if my fiancee could call her back later in the day. When he called back, they had decided to use one of the old cell phone laying around the house. They needed help setting it up, so he stayed on the line to help them through it.

He told me that while he was trying to help them, he could here the daughter in the background complaining about her “new” phone. It just was not want she wanted – and she was letting it be known.

So, this got Scott and I to talking about how things would be when we have children and it’s time to get them a cell phone. We both agreed that had that been our child, they would have lost their phone privileges very quickly.

I would love to know what you think? Do you think its a privilege or a right for your teenager or child to have a cell phone?

photo credit: mdanys

Yesterday, I received a message from a friend of mine on Facebook. She had seen my status update about my Back to School post here on Family on the Phone. I thought her message was super sweet. So I wanted to share it with you.

Anyway – here is what she said:

One of my guy friends decided to buy his 8 year old boy a cell phone. When the child called him 10 times on his way to work. I asked him the question. What do you expect your 8 year old to do with a cell phone? Response, call for emergencies. Well the emergency was that he did not get the proper amount of kisses before the dad left for work. lol

photo credit: Steve Punter

After yesterday’s post Back to School:  Will Your Children Have a Cell Phone, I wondered what DeKalb County’s policy on cell phones at school was. Since I don’t have any little ones just yet -  and my sister has been out of high school for almost 2 years now, it took me a second to get my hands on a copy of the DeKalb County Code of Conduct handbook.

I was looking for it to find out what their policy was on cell phones at school. I figured that children would not be able to use it during school hours – but I had no idea it was as strict as it is.

Here is what the school systems policy on cell phones is:

Students shall not use any electronic communication devices, including but not limited to paging devices, cellular phones, walkie- talkies, and similar devices, during instructional time or on school buses. Parents and students should refer to pages 32-33 for important information about cell phones and other electronic communication devices. Confiscated devices will be returned only to the parent/guardian.

During school hours (the start of the day to the end of day with final bell), their cell phones must be switched off – not on silent or vibrate , and out of sight.

If they are caught using their phones during school hours, here are the list of consequences:

• 1st offense: A warning and confiscation of the devices
• 2nd offense: Confiscation of the devices, detention, community services/work detail or comparable consequence and required conference with parent/guardian
• 3rd offense and subsequent offense(s): Confiscation of the device and in-school suspension(ISS) pending a Local Formal Hearing, which may result in up to 10 days of ISS.

I, for one, think its just not worth it. Who wants be go through all this trouble to carry around a cell phone at school.

What do you think?

photo credit: ttarasiuk

It’s that time of year again. The summer is coming to an end (thank goodness – I ,for one ,am ready for the Fall) and children are heading back to school.

Many of you have done your school shopping. Your children have their nice new wardrobe and all the school supplies they will need to make it through the year.

But wait, aren’t we forgetting something?

Oh yes, their cell phones. Now, I know some of you have young children, so this doesn’t really affect you. But what about those parents that do have children this year with cell phones.

I know this is a big deal for your children and possible for you.

For those parents out there that decided to provide cell phones for your children this year. I was love to hear from you.

Here are a few questions for you:

• I would love to know how you came upon your decision to provide a cell phone to your child/ren?
• Do you have a set of rule in place for the use of their phone?
• Did you buy them a children phone, basic or top of the line model
• Did you set parental blocks on your child line?

I’m very interested in hearing what everyone’s choices were and why.  And you know I would also love to hear how your children have responded to having a new cell phone.
photo credit: woodleywonderworks

I know this is a slightly off topic of family phones – but I thought since I have been talking about children having cell phone, I would bring it up.

Today, the girls and I went to the Fernbank Museum. We had a great time – btw. Anyway, on the way back home, I heard the 10 year old say to her 7 year old sister that she should text her.

Text her? Huh…

Of course, I chimed in and said “you guys don’t have cell phones – how are you going to do that”.  She looked and me and laughed… as if I was crazy or something.  She began to explain to me that with a Nintendo DS you could text anyone that had a user name… But wait, I thought adults were the only ones that had those – LOL

Since when do gaming systems have the ability to text? I swear I am so out of the loop with these things.

Anyway, I thought that this was crazy but cool all  at the same time. I mean what better way to learn how to text before getting you very first phone.  Although, I found it cool – I found myself wanted to know why a child would need to have a reason to text on a gaming system.

So tell me, am I the only one that didn’t know about this feature on the Nintendo DS?

photo credit: dcbprime

I was at the pool today enjoying the last few days of summer before the kids head off to school next week. I happen to over here a dad talking to his a daughter and three of her friends. They were talking about going back to school.

The dad had asked the girls if they were ready to go back to school. They all of course said no. But one of the girls piped up and said that it wouldn’t be so bad this year for her because she was going to the 4^th grade and because her parents had given her a cell phone.

I had been half way listening to them – until she said exclaimed she had a cell phone.

I wanted to know what kind of cell phone she had gotten. And the dad she was talking to was just as interested as I was. He began to ask her what type of phone it was. He automatically assumed it was a child’s type phone.

But she corrected him quickly by saying “oh no, I have a phone real phone that I can text with”.

I remember thinking to myself, that’s going to be a big bill – lol! She was already texting her friends that had cell phones too.

So my question for the parents out there that do have cell phones for their children – what type of phone do they have. Is it a child’s type phone or a real cell phone?

photo credit: RoamMobility

Today, I had the opportunity to spend the day with two 10 year old girls. They had had a sleep over the night before and where just hanging around the house trying to figure out what to do for the day. I asked the girl that was visiting what time her parents wanted her home. She told me she was not sure but would call her dad to find out.

I just assumed she would be using the house phone to place her call.

An hour went by and she has not come back to tell me what her dad had said. I asked her if she had been able to speak with her dad and she said she had. I, again, assumed she had used the house phone.

I still did not think much of her calling her dad until the girls came back down stairs to hang out with me. Then I saw she had a cell phone. I stared at it as if it was some sort of alien object propped on the couch – as if it should not have been there.

All I could think was “since when do children have cell phones”.

I must be a bit old fashioned here but why would she need one. I mean – I didn’t have a cell phone as a child and made out just fine. I always called my parents when I got home from school so that they knew that I was home safely.

I guess times have changed!

This promoted me to ask a few of my friends and my fiancée what age they thought children/teenager should receive a cell phone.

The answers were mixed. Some said that they should receive one based of the maturity of the child. Others said, not until they could understand the cost associated with having one and could contribute to the plan.

What do you think? Should children be given a cell phone and at what age?

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

Yesterday, I entered the world of mobile banking on my iPod Touch. I honestly never thought I would bank on the go but I provide myself wrong yesterday morning.

I have been reading Rosalind Gardner’s ” Super Affiliate Handbook“. I had had it bound at one of our local stores when I first got it. It had be tossed around like a little rag doll for a few months, so it was in need of a new cover.

I headed over to the office supply store to have it fixed but realized on the way there that my funds were low. I needed to transfer some money over from another account. Initially thought I could transfer the funds via my banks automated phone service -  but I was wrong. I decided while I was on the phone to go ahead and speak with a representative to complete the transaction.

We now have an iPhone App

As the agent ended the call,  she mentioned to me that they now had an app for the iPhone. I said that was great but when would they be getting for one for the Android phone. She apologized for them not offering the Android app at this time but she felt it would be available soon.

An Android App would be better

I would prefer to have the app for my Android but I didn’t pass up the chance to download it to my iPod Touch. I figured I could learn how to use it – so when the Android app does make its way down the pipe, I’d be ready!

How many of your use mobile banking apps? Have you found them to be useful? I would love to hear how mobile banking apps have helped you.

I thought it would be nice to feature one of my favorite and most used Android and Iphone apps each week. They help me out daily, so I hope they are useful to you as well.

This weeks Android app is Tweetcaster. I think I use this app more than any other application on my phone right now. I don’t have to option to be on my PC during the day. Tweetcaster allows me to stay connected to twitter while being away from home.

What stands out to me the most about Tweetcaster is how easy it is to use. I was able to use this app start out of the “box” so to speak without having to fumble around for days trying to figure out how to use it.

With the good, always come a bit of bad.

There are just one things I wish did not came with this app: Ads

There is an ad that displays at the bottom of my twitter stream. I can close out the ad but it comes back whenever I send a message, or use some other function of the app.

So, what’s your favorite Andriod app this week?

Continuing with our Camping theme across Mom’s Talk Network, I thought it would be nice to see an actual geocache.

Since I have not been able to do one of my own, I found this video below for your instead. The guys in the video walks you through how to set up a handheld Garmin. He recommends using a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx for geocaching. Then he is off to geocache with his boys.

Go check him out!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuASWCZ040M