First Flip Phone For Carter and Addison

This has been such a sensitive subject for me as I had absolutely NO intention of giving the kids a cell phone until middle school. They really had never really asked for one and we often talked openly about why they didn't need one and the issues that kids constantly face that have Smart phones. But as Summer was coming to a close and the new after school calendar was being solidified and soccer practices officially started the first week of August, I found the need, in our particular case was real. Although Carter and Addison play select soccer for the same soccer club, unexpectedly this year, they are practicing 3 days a week on separate field locations 2 miles away from one another on the same days. We had our first need clearly displayed when I dropped them both off at their corresponding fields and went to run a quick errand down the street. In the 20 minutes I was gone, lightning and thunder started and although it never rained, I panicked because they could have called practice and my kids had no way to get ahold of me. Even 2 miles a apart, I would be at one field normally and the other child would need to quickly get ahold of me. So we decided if we could activate an old unused flip phone we had been given as a free promotion 10 years ago, then it would provide value in in a safe and beneficial way to all. Surprisingly to the Spring agents, the ancient and spectacle of a phone did work. Many of the 20 year old Sprint sales agents had never even seen a phone like this and were completely baffled as to why I would ever be wanting to activate this phone, especially when I was up for a "free" Smartphone upgrade. I finally just started explaining, "Ya'll aren't parents of 10 year olds yet, you wouldn't understand."

It took well over an hour to go over their 4 page contract for their "new" 2006 Sanyo flip phone. Although it doesn't have a camera, it can't even accept pictures or connect to the web, we used the experience to set the stage for what it will be like in the future. 

I found a cell phone rules on-line and added a lot to it and even found Bible verses to correlate to each of the rules. The kids took the family meeting and reading of the contract very seriously and I was VERY impressed with the high level of questions Addison asked. I saw a little "lawyer" in her and loved it!

They have had fun learning how to make a call, save a phone number and generally just learn to use a real phone. I suddenly made a family rule that your first cell phone must be from the year you were born! ;)