Start out as a hard ass. You can always let go later. You go later. You can't go the other way.

I've got everyone beat. Mine are 10, 19, 24.

I've already been threw it. In the middle of it. Getting ready again.

We were pretty lucky. All 3 wrecked a car, 2 totaled, but other than that, they didn't get into much trouble. It might have been that the Vice Principal was my wife's nursing school roomate's husband and so we knew everything. The funniest trouble was when one of them wrote a piece in the school newspaper about what she thought was too much money being spent on sports. Not popular with the jocks and their parents.

Mine are 5 and 2 so I have time. But I think it will in many ways be easier.

“Find my friends” tracker on iPhone will let me know where they are at any time when they get an iPhone. They won’t be able to sneak in and out of the house without me knowing due to our security system.

The key IMO is going to be the iPhone. We made a decision to not allow them to have one under any circumstances until they are 16 and can drive. No pressure will force our hand

My three are grown (youngest will be 20 next month). Boy, I could tell you some stories. Thank God we all survived those years.

oh yeah?

28, 25 and 8.

When it's all said and done, I will have raised kids for 38 years. My youngest will graduate when I'm eligible for Social Security.

I'd be surprised if you hold fast here. Society changes so quickly. In the mid-2000s pretty much only high school students had cell phones. In the mid-2010s I noticed many middle school/junior high students having cell phones. It's early in the 2020s but now many people I know with elementary aged children (8-10) are getting them cell phones.

So, my granddaughter is 13. Her parents went out of town for the weekend, leaving on a Friday. GD is staying with a friend. The girls are acting up and the mother at the house decides enough is enough and sends the kids home. GD catches a ride with another mother and tells her to drop her off at the park, her dad is going to pick her up. So, at 10 PM, in the pouring rain this brilliant mother drops her off at the park.

Fast forward an hour or so and low and behold no one knows where GD is at and she is not answering her phone. My daughter calls us and my sons and I take off into the rain to look for her. Not surprisingly she was found at the back of the park with a couple of boys. Thankfully, still fully clothed, etc but still in a large amount of trouble!

Parents were a little pissed at the mother just dropping a 13 year old off in the rain without checking with the parents to verify the story but the GD lost her phone for a few weeks and knows that she will be watched more closely than ever going forward!

That was the oldest. The second one (red head, quiet) is the one I think is going to be more trouble when the time comes.

LMAO

That's awesome Stevie. I think I'm a little on the old side when a similar aged friend of mine just graduated their last and our youngest is 3 1/2 years old.

Kids are awesome, though. Easily the most enjoyable part of my life.

You cut to the bone with that one.

I wasn't a spanker. Tried time out, nope, tried no tv, nope, tried grounding, nope, tried bedtime at 6:00 in the summer, nope.

But god forbid take away their phone, true hysterics. They think it is their given right. No it is a privilege. One that can be earned. You have the right for food, clothing and housing. The rest are earned.

And, it seems over time as 3 yro get phones, it will be even more effective.

Our neighbor has a 7 year old daughter with an iPhone. Granted it’s got that software called BARK parental control to basically restrict everything but pictures and text and visibility to everything, but I still don’t like it.

Your ****ing kid does not need an iPhone. Get this a tracker phone so they can contact you in case of emergency.

It’s gone way too far

That's scary. I'm not as "vintage" as you but the wife and I had a talk the other night about being "alone".

We're at 15 years and have had about 6 months of "us" time.

Kids would rather lose an arm or a parent than losing their phones.

Maybe where you live but not where I live. My oldest has had a phone since the beginning of 6th grade and my youngest will get a phone probably a year earlier.

My wife installed software to not only track their phones but battery status and other options. We also track all of their online behavior on their iPad's and PC's and fortunately, we haven't had any issues to date.

That said, shit can get crazy here in LA so I want my kids to have the ability to call or text immediately. Just a few years ago, one of the elementary schools went on full Lockdown because some nut was swinging a machete in front of the school. Another lockdown happened because some nut jumped the 8 foot tall fencing around the school.

Fortunately, the police arrived quickly in both cases and no one was injured but the kids didn't have cell phones at the time, so my wife and I were pretty much freaking out when we received those emails/texts stating that the schools were on lockdown.

Our kids are good kids, but when they are on their electronics they get testy.

We took them completely away weeks ago and boom, they turn into fun loving kids again.

It’s never too late, and guess what? Adults are the same way..