Comments on: Mom, everyone has their own laptop

By: redcrabb

redcrabb — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:58:45 +0000

It’s a painful process, but someone has to say NO! I say NO! all the time…to my 6th grader who is too social and it scares me to put a cell phone in her hands. She can wait, like her sister, til 7th grade…when she is doing extracuricular sports and needs a ride home when it’s dark and there is no phone around to call me on. Then there is my 8th grader who begged for a phone and I gave her my old phone when she got into 7th grade, and she rolled her eyes everytime she used it cause it was so arcaic (sp?)…so when I upgraded she got my next “old phone” and was SOOO HAPPY…and lost it…yep, I think I predicted this would happen…and so now she either gets the old-old phone back…or nothing at all. The end.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:17:39 +0000

The key words in my dad’s comment above: “My folks trusted….” Paranoia drives parents today to keep in constant contact. And does it add security to their lives? When all this communication works, yes. Ironically enough, I think it was easier when you just had to trust, without constant checking.

By: Bill Crabb

Bill Crabb — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:38:44 +0000

In my day I walked 1 3/4 miles each way to school along a muddy road when it rained and sloshed through snow in the winter. My folks trusted that we would get to school and back safely and we did without a word of communication between us from the time we left home in the morning until we returned in late afternoon. Rarely did we have the luxury of a working telephone in the house and there was none in the one room school. Some how we survived and we did it without ever asking our parents for any luxury. That was a no no in our house. One more thing: As a friend of mine would often say “Remember this is an old man talking”.

By: rjga

rjga — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:14:02 +0000

Ok, we are guilty. Our son got a laptop for his 13th birthday. It was a more selfish, than indulgent. We both work from home and we wanted him off ours! It seems in Middle School, every night there is homework that requires the computer. My daughter (now in 7th grade) is 12 and I am ready to buy her one early b/c every night, I can’t use my computer b/c she needs it.

As for texting, I agree with the above comment. It is a great way to communicate with teenagers.

By: Awleib

Awleib — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:10:30 +0000

Every single kid in Lower Merion and Harriton High School gets their own MAC laptop in September when school starts.

So now 16-yr. old Jordan has dueling laptops on her desk- her 2 yr old MAC(her second) and her school MAC. She is Im-ing and video conferencing on both laptops (in and out of school)and can’t print from the school MAC so she forwards printing to her personal MAC and PRINTs.
Between her 2 MACS, her 4 month old Blackberry and texting – it is a WONDER anything is heard, felt, understood, accomplished.

Reports cards come out Friday- we shall see.

By: NikkiBenner

NikkiBenner — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:04:35 +0000

Back in my day, we needed to carry thirty-five cents with us, and find the nearest pay phone to call home. The music wasn’t noise, and those gosh-darned kids need to get off my lawn!!!

I’m glad Jackson is only seven months old and I don’t need to think about this yet…

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:52:38 +0000

We are at the same Bay Area public school as Terry (above) and yes, all the middle school kids get a laptop for the school year (but then nothing in high school.) In fact, public high school kids are discouraged from bringing their own laptops, should they have one, due to theft. I guess we are considering laptops upon entering high school since they are so used to using them!

On the phone thing, Liam was one of the first to get a cell phone in 5th grade and that was for medical reasons. 99% of all calls were to me and under 30 seconds. He did get a “free” upgrade on his 13th birthday to a phone that has a texting keyboard. I thought this was a total waste but I must confess our communications have improved dramatically. Another conversation, but I am getting more love from texts than I ever got by phone. He never picks up the phone if I call.

Yes, there are the kids with iPhones and some are even quite young but most of us, including the kids, think that is ridiculous!

By: terry

terry — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:34:03 +0000

My kid gets a laptop to take home from his public school. You might think this is a good thing…but you’re wrong. The school insists that it is yet another tool to aid in their learning. I can’t even tell you what they are learning! But the thought of not working on a laptop is out of the question already. And the 40 whole seconds it might take to hook up to the internet is an eternity.

And, my computer, now four years old is already considered old. The people at the Apple Store look at me with that, “You might want to get a new computer,” look.

Are we really supposed to discard our electronics every three or four years? This sounds just so wonderful for the environment and the pocketbook!

By: lindacopy

lindacopy — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:45:18 +0000

Ethan (almost 13) wants his own Macbook. Not in the cards for now. As it is, our boys share one of the newest computers in the house, a Mac desktop with fast Internet, built-in camera. Our school district expects kids to have lots of access to the Internet for projects, checking homework, posting their responses to videos that they’re expected to watch, etc. (I’m pretty sure that students who don’t have this capability at home get time in the classroom, but still, that’s a disadvantage for them.)

So, you see, in our house, the situation is reversed. I (Mom) need to sneak on the kids’ computer when they aren’t at home (where I am right now)! I do have my own Mac laptop, but it’s older and slower. Yeah. Like me.

By: MemeGRL

MemeGRL — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:33:24 +0000

The first grader down the street is a bit of a “free-range” kid and usually travels with Dad’s cellphone to keep folks apprised of where the party’s going, and to make it easier for Dad to call Free Ranger home. And I know Dad is thinking hard about getting his child a phone of his own since he’s worried about how his own might eventually be used. (Texting etc) But, like you, it won’t be a Blackberry for the boy, but one of those “you can call these 15 numbers and no others” phones-for-kids.
And I am sympathetic; slow internet connections drive me bananas. But I don’t know that this would extend to actually purchasing a new computer for them!