Posted on 01/01/2007 1:45:53 PM PST by Coleus
Joe Skarimbas was just learning to read when he decided he was ready to join the digital age. "When he went to first grade he said, 'When am I going to get a cell phone?'" said Joe's mother, Tara Skarimbas.
The Leonia family decided to hold off on getting young Joe a phone until he turns 10 and starts walking home from school alone. But his mother understands the temptation to get her son, who turns 8 this month, a cell phone as soon as possible.
"Just for safety purposes," she said, glancing toward the new Disney Mobile kiosk during a shopping trip to the Paramus Park mall last week.
As the adult and teenage cell phone market becomes saturated, cell phone companies are targeting younger and younger users. This holiday season several companies -- including Disney, Verizon, TicTalk and Firefly -- are pushing brightly colored cell phones specially designed for children as young as kindergartners.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
I had a part time job flipping burgers after school. We didn't have a car - so I took the bus. Is this so out of your realm of understanding? There are actually people (some of the schoolkids) who can navigate around without a gps system.
This was 1968 - 1972.
I gave up on politicians! Now I just have random thoughts, LOL.
You're right! Jack Bauer's calls don't bother me. I wonder if it's because they visually present it in a better way. We'll see how the new season does it.
I just have a question. Do you really think a cellphone will keep your child safe from a pedophile who is determined to snatch them? First, most children will never meet a stranger who will "snatch" them, they are usually molested by family members. Second, how simple do you think it would be to take that phone away?
They sure as hell felt like barbed wire after walking to school in snow higher than your boots, and not being allowed to wear pants in school. I can still remember the thrill of putting on soggy, wet, freezing cold stretch pants that had hung in your locker all day for the walk home. Blecch.
Strangely enough we survived it.
The crime rate was worse then than now!! It is no more risky.
I had a 65 Rambler with a hole in the floorboard that made it difficult to drive in the rain, does that count? The steering wheel fell off once.
Thank God you weren't kidnapped by hippies.
Our perception of daily risks was much lower in that timeframe.
Occasionally a kid would go missing and parents did worry about them having been in a car crash.
But they never thought to worry that they'd been eaten by a neighbor.
The statement that the child would be "alive" with a cell phone because of the bus is absurd.
My parents didn't feel the NEED to know "everything that was happening". The school was in charge, period. When the lockdown was over we were released. I didn't have to talk to them on the phone for two hours during it.
And yes I have two boys. 26 and 25. No cell phones at school. I actually let them go to camp for an entire week on the bus without a cell phone.
There was also a recent story up here about a high schooler who used his cell phone to film a teacher who was going into a hysterical, angry rant, swearing at the students, etc. Then he posted the video on YouTube.
Cell phones are now banned at the school, and the teacher went on stress leave.
Kidnapped by hippies? Your kids were kidnapped by hippies?
LOL!!!
I'm sorry I missed this yesterday. You sound like a great, involved parent, FA--your daughters are lucky.
LOL, good grief, where to start? Let's see...
I voted for Clinton in '92. That was the last time I voted national democrat (thanks to sittinyonder who opened my eyes ;-) ) And that was before I had kids. 3 boys. Who all play soccer. And are darn good at it.
After marriage, kids and becoming a soccer mom, I joined my local GOP and served in various positions within the party, served as county chair for Herman Cain's run for the Republican spot on the Senate ticket here in GA, I have organized and put on a support the troops rally before the start of the Iraq War, I organized, collected and sent 20+ boxes of goodies, needed and wanted items, to Iraq to a Marine battalion, mostly on my own dime for the shipping, because of a request from a fellow FReeper, among numerous other things.
So while I did vote for Clinton in '92, I wasn't a soccer mom then. That came after I was awakened to my inner conservatism.
And I beg to differ that the problem with soccer moms and dads is they are liberal. They are mostly uninformed, or should I say, informed by the MSM. So I talk to them as I coach their kids. It's amazing how many think the same way, but need some encouragement to think they are not alone, and they need the truth.
So you can take your stereotype of soccer mom and dads (my husband, who has coached our oldest son's soccer team for 7 years, is a soccer dad, and I can think of not many who are smarter than he is, or better versed in the history and scope of our federal government and our Constitution AND consistent in his beliefs and values) and put it where the good Lord split ya. And I do mean that in the friendliest FReeper way. ;-)
Oh, also, our 10 yr old got a cellphone for Christmas. A Firefly. We program in the numbers, and those are the only ones he can call. So neener neener neener.
When I was a kid (early 70's) there were numerous places in the woods or by the railroad tracks that were "salted" with porn. Now it's all virtual but it's debatable if that makes it more or less dangerous. A different kind of danger, where a cell phone certainly won't help.
Yikes. I guess I'm luckier than I thought.
Uh, I mean that's terrible!
I, of course, never looked at stuff like that...
But...it's Elvis singing Jailhouse Rock. I think I can be arrested for playing that softly.
:)
Not many? I think you meant "none." WTF is this "not many" business? Name one.
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