CELL Phones for 8 year olds? How absurd is that!!

United States
April 23, 2010 8:26pm CST
I was shopping today and saw a young girl on a cell phone. Turns out, she was calling her mother who was talking to a sales clerk. They were literally 10 feet apart. Evidently the little girl who could not have been more than 8 years old didn't want to wait anymore and had called her mother so let her know she was ready to leave. Not only did I find that amazingly rude of the child but the look of surprise on her mother's face was priceless!! She apologized to the clerk for having to take the call and told her daughter to wait just a few more minutes! I can understand why a teenager would have a cell phone but an 8 year old child? What do you think? Should a young child have their own cell phone??
1 person likes this
11 responses
@34momma (13882)
• United States
26 Apr 10
wow this is just a shame. what parent would buy such a young girl a cell phone. and how dare that child call her mother and tell her to hurry up! i would never do that for one of my children. but that is the state of our world now days. what a shame
@Shar19 (8231)
• United States
26 Apr 10
Now that is just nuts. The kids is obviously a spoiled brat. The mom got exactly what she deserved since she created the whole situation by allowing her child to have a cell phone.
@weasel81 (2496)
• Australia
24 Apr 10
that is a bit silly having a child thsat age with a mobile phone, i can understand them using on to phone the other parent or a friend from their parents phone. but not have their own phones. my son is at the stage of answering the phone on me, and he's nearly 8. he gets my mobile when it has a txt come through but i need to get off him before he does anything to it.
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
25 Apr 10
The only reasoon I can think of is if the child is away from home alot. Other than that, there is no real reason for me. I know it is a huge fad and that children want to "fit in" but sometimes fitting in isn't so great.
• United States
24 Apr 10
Any young kids girl or boy should not be influence by cell phones. This is why most kids are not having the good education they deserved, kids these days are growing up sooner that you think.
• Philippines
24 Apr 10
Yeah I know, but we have this kind of technology today.. Most were computer-generated, that's why people become lazy. Parents should not be giving a celphone to their children which are still in childhood stage, maybe adolescence stage may do, but for childhood days, it may not. This will make children more lazy at most times, will not study most of their times, cannot enjoy being a child, etc. There's a lot of things they may missed than having a cellphone. Don't you think?
@timhinyy (1653)
• United States
24 Apr 10
that would be a little too young for me if I had a child which I don't and I personally don't have and could not afford to have a cell phone so if I don't have one for myself why would I get one for my child I am waiting to see when my niece gets to that age if and when will my sister and brother in law do about allowing her to have one, because she loves to get on the phone now and she is only 2 and a half years old and they both have cell phones so I wonder when and if they will allow her to have one, but I would agree with you that is pretty rude of the child to call her mom on the phone in the store and tell her mom that she is ready to go wow if I would have ever done that I would of been in a lot of trouble when I was a kid.
@marguicha (215804)
• Chile
24 Apr 10
Old and young people use badly cell phones. What you just described was a bad use of it. But maybe the mother gave the girl a cell phone for safety reasons and wanted her to learn to use it. The child decided to play with it. Teenagers go to school (and to class) with earphones. They spend money they haven´t earned talking for hours about nothing with their friends. But their parents do the same. Grownups use cellphones while driving, while crossing streets and so on. They spend more hours talking at a cellphone than taking care of their children. What do you expect. Children ape their parent´s ways. I am old enough to think that phones are to talk about important things, not to play tag. Take care!
• Philippines
24 Apr 10
Maybe the kid was pampered in their family. Lol. Obviously, the mother wants her baby happy at all cost or she wants to be able to talk to her everytime just in case she gets lost. It's still wrong though. She should at least be fourteen. :)
@knicnax (2233)
• Philippines
24 Apr 10
I think it's good for kids to be able to communicate, especially when they're out of sight. In this times of fast living, we also want fast information about anything. whether it be for work, business, or the security of knowing where your kid is. I wasn't in the situation where you hear the kid, but there might be an urgent underlying reason behind it? if not, well the cellphone is not to blame. The rearing of the kid matters a lot. and for me personally, that was more respectful that interrupting the mum directly by talking to her. atleast, the cellphone provided a warning, and the mum had an option of answering the call. besides, what kind of mum talks to clerk and let's her 8 year old daughter wander away from her? even if it's just 10 feet, it could easily have been 10 meters
• Australia
24 Apr 10
That is completely absurd! There is absolutely no reason for an eight year old to have a cell phone! The fact that her time is so essentially crucial that it can not possibly be wasted in the monotonous world of shopping certainly highlights her lack of maturity. But to actually call her mother in an attempt to prompt her to speed things up? Wow! I hate to think of what she'll be like at sixteen! Strangely, I have seen a girl sucking on a pacifier whilst carrying a cell phone. Whether or not it worked or was simply a modern day version of the 'blanky', I'm not entirely certain. And, to be completely honest, I'm not exactly sure that I'd like to find out. At what age should parents allow their children to have cell phones?