How do you handle your kid.s who want to text during dinner and at bedtime?

1. 69

   brakel2posted 13 years ago

   How do you handle your kid.s who want to text during dinner and at bedtime?

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2. 0

   JThomp42posted 13 years ago

   Take away their phones. If they refuse? Discontinue the payments.

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3. 60

   duffsmomposted 13 years ago

   Very simple.  Families have rules and if the family allows their kids to have cell phones and text - there needs to be ground rules - one being no texting, calling or other things like that during meals.
   
   The phones are a privilege not a right, so they need to obey the rules or the phone is history.
   
   The cell phones need to be keep in the kitchen or other area for charging rather than in their rooms.  that takes care of bedtime.

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4. 59

   nightwork4posted 13 years ago

   simple rules. no texting or talking on the cell during dinner or at bedtime.it's completely up to the parent when they use their phones, not the kids.

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5. 59

   fre2bmeposted 13 years ago

   Personally I would say go have a conversation with them. Give them attention. Ask how their day was, what their friends are up to or what boy they have a crush on. Granted they won't like it, not at first. But if they feel you genuinely care about the stupid teacher they feel is unfair in grading or their best friend who is flirting with the boy they know they like, eventually having a conversation with you will become more important than the one they are having over text. Be patient and involved. Don't get angry or punish them. Sincerely care what they have to say, listen to them and make sure they know you want their attention too. Start by making it a nightly routine to go around the table and say one good and one bad thing that happened in their day. When it's their turn they will be forced to put their phone down, even if for only a minute at first. Eventually, you won't have to go around the table, they will just want to tell you. Imagine what that could do for your relationship. I promise it will be frustrating at first and it might take a while, but I also promise it will be well worth it. Kids just want to be loved, give them a little attention and they will do the same.

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6. 66

   Rosana Modugnoposted 13 years ago

   This has happened in my home when my children were younger.  Rules were already established so if I ever saw one of them with a cell phone in their hand at the dinner table, I would know this must be an emergency call they're taking.  Otherwise, they'd know better.
   
   The rules I set were strict but simple and easy to follow with consequences that they understood as fair.  I was a single parent so raising two children alone wasn't easy.  It demanded a lot of consistency and patience.  I didn't want to be their friend.  I was their mother and father all rolled into one.  I worked a lot of hours so I had to make sure they felt my presence at home even when I was not.  That meant instilling fear that their actions would prompt a reaction from me.
   
   Dinner table is for eating and talking to each other.  It's where we bond on our daily experiences.  The phone should be in your room when you come down to eat.  Otherwise, you are disrespecting the family unit and everyone in it.  It should not be in your pockets.  I know some kids can text without looking.  Please don't make me pat you down.  I've done this.  It won't be fun for you if I find something.  If you have it on you, it will be taken away and you can skip dinner.  Going hungry one night will never starve anyone.  But you will remember to leave your phone upstairs next time.
   
   Bedtime is for sleeping.  You don't text while you sleep.  When the lights go out, so should your phone.  If I ever walk in and catch you in bed on the phone, you won't have a phone to go out with the next day.
   
   If it continues, I will pull a Brady Bunch on you and install a payphone that takes quarters in the living room.  When you want to call a friend, you call them on that.  It's not cordless, so you'll have no privacy and the minutes run out when your change does.  I don't believe in allowances so you have to earn your change by working for it, doing chores around the house at set stipends.
   
   I always thought this was a great idea.  Mostly because my parents used it on me when I would sneak on the home phone after they were asleep.  No, we had no cell phones back then.  Nothing is more embarrassing then calling your friends and saying, "Hold on, I need to put another dime in."  Yes, I am that old, it took dimes.
   
   You can still get a payphone online and have it installed to take change.  If my kids weren't adults now with kids of their own, I'd have one put in just for humor.  In fact, I may just get one anyway for the hell of it.

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7. 80

   petenaliposted 13 years ago

   I have found that 100% of kids are unable to text if they do not have a texting device. 
   If the kids are yours, then the rules are yours.  If the rules are yours, the enforcing of the rules is yours.  If the rules are not adhered to, then the penalty is yours to decide.  That might mean that the child no longer has a texting device.... hence my first statement.
   It's called parenting.... I do understand that it is becoming a lost art.  But, by definition, the parent is the one who does it and NOT the child.
   The desire for texting MUST be replaced with something else.  Maybe....um... oh yeah, conversation with your kids.  Another lost art these days.  The problem his that it needs to start earlier than texting age - open communication and honesty gives a platform where inappropriate behaviour (whatever it is - texting, disrespect, foul language, failure to perform family requirements...) can be discussed without it becoming a "them and us" situation.
   If it's your own kids you are asking about, then you need to ask yourself why this bothers you and then communicate that to them.  Good luck!

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8. 0

   Garifaliaposted 13 years ago

   I'm so sorry but kids shouldn't have a cell phone to begin with. The radiation they emit covers their delicate brain which is still developing. From a Greek documentary  Reporage without Borders on Human Experiments:
   
   In 1993, companies manufacturing mobile phones in the U.S. commissioned Prof. Dr. Carlo to study the impact of mobile health. The research was funded with 28 million dollars from the companies took 6 years and the results were alarming: Dr. Carlo found that the radiation emitted by mobile phones significantly affect  the human DNA and can cause brain cancer and other serious illnesses. Because the survey findings were not what they expected, the mobile industry tried to keep the investigation secret.
   
   although the video is in Greek the American professor is interviewed.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bUdG-tIEOU
   PLEASE-PLEASE WATCH & LISTEN CAREFULLY!
   THIS IS FROM AN ENGLISH CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GD_BKTWyTY

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