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It seems like each one of my kids has gotten a cell phone at a younger age than her older sibling.\u00a0 Usually the deciding factor has been a school activity which requires regular after school meetings or practices.\u00a0 If we need to pick someone up and do not know for sure when the bus is going to be back from the event, a cell phone is a real time saver.<\/p>\n
Now the youngest wants a cell phone before she gets to middle school.\u00a0 There is not a good reason to get her one.\u00a0 All the elementary special events happen during the school day.\u00a0 We drive her to every game or other extra curricular activity.\u00a0 In the last year the only time she may have needed a cell phone was when she spent a night with a friend in another county and that was a stretch.<\/p>\n
We have a home phone and if she needs to talk to someone, she can use that.\u00a0 What she does not have is texting.\u00a0 Every kid with a cell phone spends a lot of time texting and she is being left out of the mix.\u00a0 We had a long conversation about texting and she assured me that she would only be sending about 100 messages a month.\u00a0 So we could buy her the basic plan and she would get by.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think she\u2019s realized that is only about three text messages a day.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, I found a free solution.\u00a0 Google provided me with a free phone number via Google Voice<\/a>.\u00a0 That number will ring the home phone if someone calls it.\u00a0 Google also provides free text messaging using that number.\u00a0 She texts her friends and none of them are the wiser about her not owning a cell phone.<\/p>\n There is one caveat.\u00a0 To use Google Voice for texting, she will have to use her computer instead of a phone.\u00a0 That should not be a problem.\u00a0 She has a netbook that works at home and at any location with public wireless.\u00a0 If she really needs it in the car, she could connect to my cell phone\u2019s wireless hot spot.\u00a0 All of our family members have wifi, so she can connect when we are visiting them.\u00a0 Thank you Google.<\/p>\n Of course, she still wants a cell phone for Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It seems like each one of my kids has gotten a cell phone at a younger age than her older sibling.\u00a0 Usually the deciding factor has been a school activity which requires regular after school meetings or practices.\u00a0 If we … Continue reading