It’s contest day here at Want Not, apparently. First you had a chance to win some Oh Mama! bars and now, well, this one is going to be just a smidgen harder.
If you’ve somehow not heard of kajeet, they’re a new pay-as-you-go cell phone service designed specifically for savvy kids. The phones are fully-functioned (does your kid refer to Migos and Fireflies as “baby phones?” Mine does!) but still customizable by the parents—plus the paying ahead means you never get socked with a huge overage bill. When Junior’s out of minutes, too bad. Parents can set how/when the phones can be used and block/allow phone numbers as desired. It’s just a smart way to manage a cell phone for a kid.
One lucky Want Not reader is going to receive a LG 225 phone and $20 of prepaid minutes from kajeet. This prize has a retail value of $90, not to mention the bazillion Cool Mom Points you’ll get from your kid for finally providing him with a cell phone.
Interested? Leave a comment on this post by 11:59 pm on Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 telling me why your child needs/deserves/wants a cell phone. I shall interrupt my daughter’s wailing over the injustice of how she‘s not getting a cell phone to allow her to select whom she feels should receive the phone and the minutes. The winner will be announced on Monday, September 24th, 2007. Go!
So, my 10 year old dd began middle school this year and Really thinks she Needs a cell phone. I’m not totally convinced, but not unsure either. I’m not keen on the ‘baby’ phones and am not willing to switch providers to Di$ney which would allow for the customization I want to have in order to fulfill her request. This might just be the best compromise, as she’d have to pay for her time with her allowance. This seems to have the ability to satisfy both of us – something I was beginning to think was not possible on this topic. GREAT contest Mir. You continue to be oh, so pretty 🙂
Wow, what a great contest, crossing all fingers and toes although I am still not sure how I feel about my girls having their own phone!
🙂 Debra
Oops, the reason….So, she (my 10 year old) will stop begging to “bling” my phone and have one of her own to dress up!
🙂 Debra
We’ve been struggling mightily against the cell phone craze. However, now that my oldest is in high school my hubby and I have said more than a few times “this would be a good time for a cell phone”. After school practices, weekend games, all the high school life stuff; I’d sure like to be able to get ahold of him whenever, and have him be able to contact me. We always knew that if/when we got a cell phone it’d be a pay-as-you-go type. This sure would be a nice easy way to start us off. 🙂
My daughter is 14 and she is being brave by going to a new school that is not her local school- with all her friends, and where she knows her bus driver and where everything is. Now, as I said, this is a good new (public) school that only one student from our district could attend and it emphasizes things she is interested in (like science and computers). But still, she is far away from what she knows and sometimes she’d just like to hear someone’s voice she knows, or send a text message to a friend when the lunch table seems a little lonely (she is too old for the school to have a playground- which is also something she misses). Unfortunately, her mean old parents won’t buy her a phone (that’s what her position is anyway).
I just won a t-shirt, so I don’t want to enter this one, just wanted to say that it is such a cool contest. You should let Chickadee enter for herself. I’m not sure if I want my daughter to have one yet anyway, even though she begs constantly and tells me she is the only one of her friends not to have one yet. I am a mean mom, and I am ok with that. When she is older, and it is helpful (to me) for her to have one, then yes she will have one, but right now I don’t see the need yet.
My kid SO needs this phone! The after school activities she does make her at school after hours so it would be great to give her a way to call me when she’s ready to be picked up!
I was just looking into these yesterday! How ironic.
We have 7 kids. And the older two frequently go to sleepovers at their friends houses. Which is great except they go right after school so I don’t know if they made it or not. So our requirement is that they call us when they get to their friends house. Only it is long distance and I think they are too shy to ask. So we have decided if we get a “family phone” they can take with them and call as needed.
It would be sooo cool if I won it! 😉
Oh, what an awesome prize!!! My son is in the eighth grade and one of the only ones left to be cell-less. He plays every sport available, right now it’s JFL football. I try and let him use my cell whenever possible, BUT, it’s useless when I go to pick him up and there are over 300 kids you can’t find him anywhere. I need my cell to call him to be able to find him, LOL. I keep thinking just break down and get him one but another bill, ugh. Anyways, great prize and this would be Wonderful!
Okay, well it goes without saying that my daughter doesn’t deserve a phone. Although she would argue that point until you are ready to puncture your own eardrums with an icepick. However, it would be a grand thing to have (for free!). As said darling daughter has various sports, lessons and activities and often her mommy (that’s me) is out shuttling other siblings to various sports, lessons and activities and her daddy is out of town working most of the week, it would provide added peace of mind. (Not to mention that it might keep me from losing pieces of my mind if I didn’t have to hear the continuous whining about how unfair I am that I won’t just go out and get her one right now!!)
My ten year old (brother, not child, although I am sometimes the primary caretaker) is always running around. Much more social than I am! He’s always having to come back and check in after being at a friend’s house and it would be much easier (AND less headaches!) for him to be able to call and let me know he’s fine!
I have a 13 year old son. Around here somewhere! Well, if you had 6 bothers and sisters, you’d make yourself scare too!If I happened to have a snazzy phone to send off with the buggar, I might be able to find him. Sometimes 🙂
Love your site, and you are very pretty too!!
Wow, where to begin? I write this for our newest member of our family. My 11 year old niece just came to live with us on Monday. Her mother is an alcoholic who drank away their rent money and proceeded to get them evicted from their apartment. My niece was homeless for 2 days before we could get her down to us. Her story got worse last when at the dinner table we laid a few ground rules and found that that my sister abused her by slapping her around and pulling her hair. This child has never had anything nice or anything to call her own. Birthday money was spent by her mother for items her mother wanted or at the bar. I think she deserves a cell phone because it would be something that is all hers and she would not have to share it with anyone. Also because we would love to show her than we think she is responsible and mature enough to have one and not the useless thing her mother would make her feel like she was. I’m EXTREMELY happy to say that we’re prepared to have her live with us until she’s 18 and a cell phone would be a great start at showing her that we trust her.
Oh, this is a great contest. My 13 year old son isn’t so much into that all his friends have cell phones, even though it’s starting to be the case. If we won this phone, we would actually share it, and let whoever is gone (11 year old at soccer practice, 13 year old has to stay late at school, 9 year old is at a volleyball practice, etc.) use it to call home. They would NOT, I repeat NOT get to use it to call their friends whenever they felt like it.
By the way, thanks for working so hard to pass on the great bargains. I check here every day.
I don’t need to enter this contest because EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY FIVE KIDS HAS HIS/HER OWN PHONE. Sorry to shout like that but, lordy, our cell bill is large. But anyway, here is why my 13-year-old daughter has had a cell phone since she was 10:
In the fifth grade, our carpool dropped us (another story). This meant the Roo-girl had to walk home every day because I’m a mean working mom and can’t pick her up. But in order for her neurotic and mean working mom not to freak out while my looks-like-she’s-7 daughter walks home, she got a cell phone. The rules are: she calls EVERY 10 MINUTES (even if she is walking with friends) or I call the police. Period.
Ok, I’m done hijacking your comments section now! Thanks, Mir!
We have struggled with the idea of cellphones for the kids. We have 9, the oldest two got cell phones when they could pay for them, not us. Now that we have a 14 year in high school, there are times when it would be helpful for him to have a cell phone. No more wondering where he is, why he is not home, who he is with and of course, the big one…if he needs help, he can call. Right now, we have a few TracFones that we load up and dispense when they go somewhere but I have been toying with the idea of letting him use one daily. They are preprogramed with home phone, mom cell, dad cell and police. Yep, I am a mean mom because no texting, no internet, no voice mail…just bare bones phone. I still don’t think most of the time they need a phone but when they do, it is nice to have.
I need the phone so my son WILL CALL me. No other reason. Just so I can hear from him. And did I tell you dear Chickadee how pretty you are???
I think what I have to say would reiterate what others have already said. It sure would come in handy for all those after school activities.
For me, the main reason I think this is a great thing is that it would help him learn some responsibility. How not to lose something, how to put it away carefully. How to spend time/money wisely etc. More than convenience, it’s teaching him a skill that will come in handy for later when we CAN’T watch over his every move! LOL
Why should I get this then? First, my DH would never buy one as he’s a penny pincher and for us now, rightly so. We are just barely making ends meet while I try to stay at home for a bit longer with my 2 year old. We already decided no Christmas presents this year since we decided to adopt two cats (a mom and her kitten) from a rescue shelter. THAT was our Christmas present to each other for this year (our old cat died of Kidney failure in late spring) and our son really wanted a new cat. Though, don’t worry, I did find a couple nice consignment shop nice things for gifts too… have to have SOMETHING under the tree!
Our 13 year old son has recently put the bug in our collective ear about having his own cell phone. He is in middle school across town from us, can’t ride the bus because he is out of district, and is in the band. Not only is he in the band, I am the VP of his band booster club. We have four kids. Our oldest is in band at the HS. She has a cell. During all of my jetting across town, it would be nice to have him be able to call us while on the go.
Since Hubby is often deployed or TDY, him having direct connection to each of the older kids is also a bonus. There isn’t much down side to him having one, except that wretched bill!
I would love to win this one! I have an almost 15 year old daughter. We had her on our cell plan until last week. She PROMISED she wouldn’t text anyone and all her incoming text messages were free. So she knew she could receive messages but not send any out. But she started texting and now she owes us her allowance until she is 20!!! She has always been a responsible kid and so we trusted she would obey the rules. She did really good for 6 months but then gave in to temptation. Now we can’t afford to get her any kind of phone. Not only was our phone bill high but the cheerleading fees have almost trippled what they were suppose to be. Our daughter is on the varsity cheerleading team and is away a lot and not only practices cheer a few times a week but they have a mandatory tumbling class they need to be at too twice a week. They are always changing the times last minute on when to pick up our kids. I’m 7 months pregnant with 3 kids and need some kind of break. HELP!!! We need this phone!!!!
Why does my daughter need a cell phone, you ask? So that, when other kids bully her, I can tell her they’re just “jealous,” and we’ll know it’s actually TRUE. 😉
My 15 yo informed me that the ONLY christmas present she “needed” this year was a cell phone. So, I figure, I could get off REALLY cheap if you give this to me! And cheap—errr, frugal—is ALWAYS good! No???
LLB is DESPERATE for a phone. It seems she is the last middle school student on the planet without one. LLB plays the trumpet, dances ballet, is in the Leadership Club and gets good grades. We do NOT allow any texting or calling anyone except family.
I have to say there have been a few times in the last 3 weeks that it would have been really nice for her to have a phone.
BTW: LLB told me to tell you that you are pretty.
xo
LBC and LLB
I have a 5 year old whose school lost her on the 1st day. How’s that? They promised it would never happen again but ..hmmm… I think I trust a 5 year old with a phone more than I trust these adults to necessarily do a head count. 24, 25 whats the diff? They’re mostly all here, right?
I am married to thee most frugal man on the planet – truly, OLDE SKOOL!
My 11 year old bemoans the fact he has none of the pleasures of so many others\’ his age. No i-pod, no gameboy ds (he does have the older version) no game cube, psp, not even a computer, he got his first pair of Levi’s this school year, as he is now in JR. High .
Obviously a cell phone is hardly ever brought up any longer as something he would like as he knows he** is not even close to freezing over. However, he dreams, oh I know he dreams (especially of being able to call Emma Watson on it! – Oh, he is going to kill me for sharing that.)
I think – for emergencies, or if he is going somewhere (he attends lots of Boy Scout camp outs and retreats) that it would be good, even a safety issue for him to have one for EMERGENCIES. (This is just an example of the emphasis I attempt to use with his father :P)
His father, my skinflint, er – husband wouldn\’t/couldn\’t take away a gift that my son received, well, only over my cold dead body and not with the *internet “watching†::evil cackle::
My husband has a cell phone at work for when he is out at the farms (after years of my pleading with him to carry one.) I do NOT have one. It would be something amazing/astounding, even miraculous for my 11 year old to have one before we even had our own for personal use.
Any which way – love the site, GOOD LUCK everyone!
Yesterday, the house across the street was burgalurized. I felt bad for the neighbors, offered to help them put their house back together (which after being tossed, looked 300% better than mine, on a good day). The police were around all afternoon and it made for exciting dinner table talk. Fast forward to the next day and I am moooooo-vin on. I shoved my 8yr old out the door, for the 1/4mile walk to the bus, while I took turns guzzling coffee and corraling the 18mo old nick-named “he who refuses to let his mother rest”. Later that night the 8 yr old comes sobbing into my bedroom. She had been terrified walking to the bus, because of the “buggeralures”.
A cell phone for her would reassure her on her hike to the bus. It would also keep me from dragging 18mo old “He-who” to the bus in early morning during coffee guzzling hours.
Please help!
She NEEDS one so I don’t kill her, when she’s not where she’s supposed to be when I tell her to be. and have no way of finding her.
She does NOT deserve one. NO kid DESERVES a cell phone.*(just keeping it honest and real)
She WANTS one because she doesn’t want to be killed by me, everyone else has one, it looks cool. and I’m sure it delivers some kind of life sustaining oxygen supply to the brain.
We don’t have a home phone. My husband and I switched to just cells (which we had anyway) 4 years ago when we got cable internet and didn’t need the landline. However, no home phone/third phone is starting to be an issue now that the kids are old enough to leave home alone for periods of time or walk to the park themselves. This sounds like a great solution for us.
Cool contest! Here’s why my daughter would be thrilled with the Kajeet phone: on Wednesday of this week, we had an overlapping of activities. Girl Scouts and ballet overran each other by about 15 minutes on one end and an hour on the other. Argh! How loverly would it have been for all of us if my daughter had been able to call and say, please come get me now and shuttle me to the next activity? Instead I sat in the parking lot. *sigh*
I’m not a parent, but I have a nephew who is twelve. If I could give Joe the phone, I would win all the Cool Aunt Points a person could ever desire. Also, simply from a selfish aspect, it would be really nice for those times I’m being Aunt Taxi and trying to connect with a posse of 12 year olds at the YMCA.
My almost-3 daughter just started part-time preschool, and she needs to give it to her technologically deprived mommy so that mommy can be reached in case of a dire emergency (such as lack of favorite stuffed animal during naptime, or somesuch).
My daughter is awesome, she does whatever I ask her to do. I can not afford a cell plan but she is now working parttime at a daycare and driving so a phone would be great. Especially with the nasty winter season fast approaching I would feel better knowing she is driving in the snow with a phone in case anything goes wrong especially since her school and job are on opposite sides of the city.
You see, this isn’t fair. I don’t have any kids. And a couple of weeks ago, I would have tried to enter with my dad as the one needing the cell phone, but he has one now. Darn the luck!
One word: COMMUNICATION! That is the only reason I have allowed my 10year old 6th grader to have a phone. I hope it is teaching him how to keep his mother informed of his location, activities, and needs instantly. On Demand Mothering!
Seriously. I was going to write something, but I think April totally wins… 😉
I actually don’t want Diva Girl to have a cell phone. But I was just served with papers by the man who has never met her–or shown an interest in doing so until his money was involved. He wants visitation (or, if we’re honest here, his money’s worth). Including Christmas. For a child he’s never met (or wanted to). And he thinks none of this should be supervised.
I’m going to court, and I don’t think he’ll win. But if he should, I want Diva Girl to have a cell phone with her, so that she doesn’t need anyone’s permission to call home if she needs/wants to.
Plus, I’ll be honest–I’d like the cool points. Should he win, I am sure his approach to building a relationship with her would be to buy one. If she does get a cell phone, I’d like to be the one to provide it. But I’m a single mom with 2 kids, and cell phones for nine year olds just really aren’t in my budget.
So, that’s why I would enter for my fabulous, difficult daughter. But I agree with the previous poster that April’s niece deserves the phone. And a new wardrobe. And a pony.
I vote for April–my kids can suck on it.
If Chickadee does not choose April’s neice, my son Dev said to tell her that she is very pretty and he would like a cell phone so he can call his Mama from his Daddy’s house when the step-siblings are boring him to death. The end.
No one in our family has a cell phone. We also churn our own butter, and spin our own cotton.
We could all SHARE this phone, so whoever needs to be reached by the others (mostly the kids) can be. Sharing and joining the 21st century, two great reasons to give us a phone! Also because my nine year old is making my ears bleed, begging me for a cell phone
Despite the fact that any electronic (including communication) devices are not allowed on my son’s school campus, and the fact that I’ve told him he doesn’t really need a cell phone, I think my 12-year old would be an excellent entry for your contest. He walks to and from school, has basketball practice once a week, football practice on all school days, after-school band practice sporadically, and also has a J-O-B. Yes, at 12 he WORKS at the local sport authority as a basketball timekeeper. As part of teaching him responsibility with money, we require him to save part of his earnings and allow him to spend the other portion on items of his choice, within reason. Rationing cell phone minutes for necessary conversation would be an excellent money-lesson for my young man.
And if my son doesn’t win, April’s niece certainly should.
I need one so I can have my phone to myself again!
I would just like my child to answer a phone other than MINE. That and wouldn’t it be great if the chatty cathy would talk to someone else all day long instead of me?
You didn’t mention an age requirement. He’s 2. Going on 20. Is that a problem?
dearest mir:
it is essential that madeleine have a cell phone now–right now!–at the cusp of her tweendom because:
1. if she gets one now while she still wants to call/talk to me every second of the day, she might continue to do so as a matter of habit when her tweendom gives way to full-fledge teenagery and a real contact list.
2. if she gets one now, she can activate her dream of reporting crime of all kinds day or night. please make her nancy drew dreams come true.
3. if she gets one now, she will stop changing the settings, the ringtone, the picture, the screensaver etc on MY cell phone since she will have her own to hack and i will not have to kill her.
4. if she gets one now, she will be more interested in calling whoever is on her preprogrammed list than talk to the fifth grade boys on the bus who today are “annoying her” and tomorrow might be trying to lead her down the path of destruction.
5. if she gets one now, it could be a christmas miracle worthy only of santa and her childhood innocence will be reprieved for one more christmas season, staving off atheism, cynicism and other forms of irony for at least one more year. god bless us, everyone.
My Children do not need cell phones (desire? Oh yeah baby, they’re all over the desire end of things). I need my Children to have a cell phone – why? So I can reach out and touch them any damn time I want. That would mean:
Child 1 would not stand on one leg convinced that as I’m 5 minutes late I have forgotten it and will never, ever be there to pick it up. Also I’m dead.
Child 2 would be seen off to walk over the bridge to soccer practice without me immediately being sure that somehow on that bridge it will be kidnapped and/or terribly injured and I (horrible mama) will never, ever know.
Child 3… well Child 3 could never open the honest blue eyes of a congenital liar (well, more like congenital forgetter really) and announce that it had no idea it had a curfew! None! And imagine that its weird mother wanted to be told when it was going to be home!
So… short version – I’m still trying to learn how to do this single-parent-widow thing and I’m looking for sanity baby, I’m talking utterly selfish desire for parental sanity.
I have four children – three girls and a boy. The oldest is 13, a girl, and equipped with an iPod, a cell phone, breasts larger than her mother’s ever were at that age and a mother who dares ask her to do things like dishes. Frankly the girl thinks she is an adult and has been dangerously close to…I’m not sure what because everything I think of when I hear my smart-mouth daughter talk to me is illegal and out of my capability.
And then I have an almost 12 year old, also a girl, who has pretty much been a tom boy most of her life. But lately, said girl has been growing and not just on her chest. I am most shocked by her facial changes. She is starting to look young womanly — all of the baby curves are disappearing and high cheek bones are finding their way to her face. It’s disgusting and gut-wrenching. Where did my baby disappear to?
And so, the girl is in obvious need of a cell phone and iPod (I know you can’t help with the iPod) because she needs to be able to start showing her mother the disdain her older sister has perfected. And that way, when I look at her, I won’t ache for the baby she used to be, and instead (in between dampening those impulses that are illegal and/or too violent), I will be counting the days until she grows up and leaves me.
Because it is happening. Way too soon. And I need all of the help I can get in dealing with it. The time until they move out is closer than the time when I cuddled their newborn bodies against me. Why must time march so FAST?
The problem here is that I have recently given in to my oldest child’s requests to please NOT MAKE HIM GO to his younger sisters’ soccer practice or to the grocery store for a quick run for milk because he is ENTIRELY capable of staying home ALONE for the 15 minutes it takes me to get there and back. The problematic part is that we do not have a traditional home telephone–you know, the kind that actually relies on a plug in the wall. We only have my “mommy” cell phone and the “daddy” cell phone. So, when I do leave him home for those short few minutes, which in my mind is an unimaginably LONG TIME and surely that will be when the oven will decide to spontaneously combust or there will be an unprecedented large scale earthquake here in Virginia, I have to leave him my cell phone so that he will be able to first call all his friends to tell them about how cool it was to see all the windows blow out and then to call 9-1-1.
Surely, the cell phone would alleviate all this worrying, no?
OH, and I forgot to add—because he WANTS one. He is “old enough” to NEED one, says he who is also old enough to stay home alone.
OK, probably shouldn’t have read all of the other entries before posting mine, as it will now sound fairly lame. I have 2 girls, 17 and 12, and an extra 16 year old this year. 17 yo has and pays for her own phone with her killer babysitting money, and we bought a phone for the 16 yo, as she does not drive, but will go places with friends, and she needs to be able to call home. This leaves poor 12 yo phoneless – and in the last few weeks, as she has fallen into the social strata at school with football and soccer games, tailgating parties, etc., we have found that the lack of a phone has been a real problem – hundreds of people at school, can’t find her sister for the ride home, friends (who all have phones) didn’t bring theirs, etc. We really don’t want a phone for “call the friends” purposes, as we have a perfectly good home phone that sits almost completely unused in a house full of teenaged girls.
Tell Chickie for us that she’s pretty – I know her mom loves to hear it!
I’m a single mom and my oldest son needs a cell phone. He is in Junior High now and sometimes he has to babysit his little sister. The only reason I keep paying for the landline is so that he can call if there are any questions or issues. That boy is a rock – he deserves better than he gets. He does all his schoolwork, helps around the house, rarely complains, is never picky, and supports me all around. He hugs me when I am sad. He is usually very kind to his little 3 yr. old sister, playing with her and reading to her. Truthfully there are times when he ignores her but he is never rough or loud. If he had a phone he would have more freedom to be a kid. He’d be able to organize baseball and snow fort games at the little league diamond 5 blocks away (I’d let him do it if I knew he could call if there were problems), he would be able to go further on his bike and with less worried nagging from me. If he had his own phone he would be able to call his Dad and his favorite relatives (who live far away) whenever he wanted instead of waiting until mine was available. My phone is perennially low on battery and is therefore frustrating to use. I know that he wouldn’t squander the minutes and cost me too much because he saves his money carefully and plans before he spends it. Honestly, the only thing he really needs improvement on is being more comfortable socially – he is shy and more likely to spend his free time on his hobbies than with other kids. A phone would help him with that and it would be so cool if you could help us with the phone. Thanks.
Me! Me! (Well, her! Her!) Kasia is deserving becuase she worked so darn hard to get her black belt, be on Core Demo Team, and be part of our Harmony Polish Dance Ensemble. she gave up STORM team when it got to be too much, stating, “I just want to be ten for awhile.” She walks to school and gets herself ready, which is more than I could ask for. And in spite of sibling rivalry, she really does care and look out for her little sister. (In fact she told off her best friend, in order to defend her sister who was having an Asperger moment. That was REALLY HARD for her to do.)
She’s getting more independent and trustworthy. But seriously – she’s not an angel. I do need to know what she’s doing at all times, whether she’s with me or not. We promise to use said phone for good, never evil (although there may be a picture or two that could be incriminating – left there by mom of course!)