Children with Phones and the Parents who let them

PREFACE: I have no problem with children having cell phones;  I will never tell any parent how to raise thier children; the majority of the children I know who has a cell phone seems to be responsible enough to have one; I am only speaking from my personal experience with 10 year old girls.

"Is my child ready for a phone?" vs "Am I ready, as a parent, ready for my child to have a phone?"

When dropping your child off at another child's house, what is your plan of attach? Regardless of how many times I have dropped Mya off somewhere, I go to the door unless the parent is outside and I can do the "drop-off wave." But she is 10 and I still feel the responsibility to:

1. Verify that a parent is home
2. Agree on a pick-up time.

Recent events have taught me that not everyone takes this approach. Not only was a child dropped off for a day at the water park and a sleepover to follow without me ever seeing a parental figure, but she was an hour late. By luck, my babysitter was also late, we hadn't left the house yet.

1. What would her parent have done if we were already gone?
2. What if we didn't have a babysitter at our house and no one was there?

The "ifs" are just too great to have never walked your child to the door. Oh - but wait! She had a cell phone! I suppose she could have called her parent to return to the house to get her. Let's explore that for a moment...if they all have phones, why didn't you call ME to tell ME you would be an hour late.  We won't even discuss how only 1 parent of the 6 invited girls actually let me know personally that thier daughter would be coming. Of the other 3 that were here, they let Mya know via iPod.

That was yesterday, this was this morning.

1. 10:00: Pre-arranged, per invitation pick-up time.
2. 10:05 - 10:10: All parents have come and gone; except one...yes the same girl.
3. 10:30: Girl tells me her parent is running late, just talked to her.
4. 11:00: Girl walks out front door, "someone" was in the driveway to pick her up.
5. 11:01: Rebeccah eats lunch in anger; then blogs.

If you are going to be late picking up your child, please call an adult, your child is not responsible for you, and come to the door and apologize for being late. I didn't mind having her here for another hour, but what if I had somewhere to go? What if it was a problem?

Be polite. Be courteous. Be thoughtful. Be respectful. Be responsible.

I try to make sure my children are all of those things - they are for the most part (not perfect; but that's ok). If they are learning from other adults that it's ok to NOT be those things, then there is a problem. Adults are in a constant state of complaint these days because children don't have manners or are too attached to technology; but as parents we need to display for them how to socially interact in the correct way. I am not always an ideal role model for my children, I mess up. But I care.