Moms Talk: 7-Year-Olds with Cell Phones

"The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than one to two hours of quality TV and videos a day for older children and no screen time for children under the age of 2." 

Oh thank heavens. They didn’t mention iPhone apps. Whew.

In all seriousness, my 7-year-old daughter has an iPhone. It’s my old one, left over from an upgrade to a 4, and it has no SIM card, so it cannot make calls. It’s just an app delivery device. Perhaps we should call it an iPod touch, but it isn’t, so we don’t.

And, anyway, we wouldn’t get fewer glares if we did.

We live in a technology town in a technology area, but tech and kids is a touchy subject no matter where you are. From those who embrace the electronic babysitter to those who are appalled at what it means about us as parents and a society, there are sides to this war, and people are armed and ready.

Here’s the thing. Technology is a part of our lives. Do you know anyone over the age of 12 that doesn’t have an email address? I know some holdouts without smartphones and Facebook accounts, but email? It’s everywhere.

We got my daughter a Gmail account almost as soon as we named her. Mostly as a placeholder for her name, but also so that all of our friends our age could send her as email as soon as they got the birth announcement. These younger members of our lives sent messages of love and welcome that she can read as she gets older and know how much she was wanted and embraced by our community.

This electronic version of love bothers some people. A friend of mine who happens to be a teenager posted on Facebook last night how much she enjoys getting a nightly text of love from her mother (also a good friend of mine). This comes every night, even if the daughter is just downstairs. While I was still saying “Aw, how sweet,” I read the first comment, a shocked statement that this was a message that should be delivered in person, not electronically.

My friend said exactly what I would have. This is a loving mom who gives lots of messages of love in real life, but this electronic ritual will be able to continue even when she moves out. Whether she is in college or working a night shift or trying to decide how much technology to give her own child, she will be able to look forward to a little blip of pixels that reminds her that her mom loves her. 

I’m sorry, but that deserves an “Aw.” That’s parenting.

As long as technology is additive, I see no issue. I’d rather have my daughter playing with an app than watching TV. It’s interactive, uses her mind, and if that is the trade, I’m all for it. 

Of course, I’d rather have her read a book than do an app or watch TV, but she’s an extraverted kid, and reading is an introverted activity. It actually wasn’t until she found out about email and texting that she became interested in reading at all. The idea of having a private conversation with her grandmother who lives in another state, not moderated by my presence, made her want to learn to read, when nothing else I had to offer did. 

And now she’s doing math worksheets every night, with the goal of earning herself an iPad so that they can video chat. Judge away, but she’s happily doing math. That’s additive in my book. And it’s not like I won’t be the one picking out the apps and limiting when and where she can use the thing. That’s parenting. It doesn’t go away with the appearance of electronics.

I’m not without hypocrisy in this war. One of my daughter’s friends her age has a real working cell phone, and when I found out, I was just as shocked as people are when they see my daughter with her neutered one. But after thinking about it, I had to shake off my first thoughts. I know this boy to be responsible, savvy, and sometimes going out of the range of a walkie-talkie. So, as with all things, I guess it depends on the kid.

Mine won’t be getting a working phone any time soon, though. Twelve, I say, arbitrarily. Twelve.

That’s parenting.