Help! My kid wants a phone! Which is safest? What do I do?

Episode 17

Five options to consider!

In this episode I talk about what phone or device to give your kid when you are wanting to give them their first phone, they're asking about getting their first phone, or you need some way to keep in touch with them when they are away from you.

Since kids are getting phones at younger & younger ages, it is so so so important to understand that the smart phone is likely not the best thing to give from day one.

Listen in for the five most common options, three of which I WISH I had when my kids were at a point of getting their first phone! Be THAT Mom! 

• Relay go device can be found HERE or at https://www.target.com
• Gizmo Watch can be found HERE
• Giving your kid their first phone! Consider GABB Wireless, the creators of a phone that can give your child the perks of a phone without giving them access to the world and the world to them, sort of like training wheels on a bike, for a bike that could potentially change the trajectory of their entire life. Use code BETHATMOM for extra $$$ off or go to this link:  www.gabbwireless.com/promo/BeThatMom
• Protect your child (and your sanity) in the digital world with BARK! Use code BETHATMOM for 20% off for life! https://www.bark.us

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Want to be THAT Mom besties??? Text BETHATMom to 50597 and jump in to my free Be THAT Mom Movement Facebook Community HERE! 

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Email me at [email protected] or connect with me on IG @dollydenson https://www.instragram.com/dollydenson

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More info on the Be THAT Mom Movement https://www.dollydenson.com

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Simplify your fitness/nutrition routine! Join me in the Align Your Life Fit Club! More info can be found at https://www.dollydenson.com/fitclub

Listen in here or check it out at bit.ly/bethatmompodcast

Full Transcription

This is episode 17 of the be that mom movement podcast. And today we are going to talk about what phone or device to give your kid when you are wanting to give them their first phone, they're asking about getting their first phone, or you need some way to keep in touch with them when they are away from you.

(00:18): Welcome to your source for tips, tools, and support to help you be that mom that is tuned in and proactive for yourself, your family, and for the wild ride of raising kids in this digital age, inspired by a mother's love with a relatable real life. Proud to be that mom flair. This is the bead that mom movement with your host Dolly Denson.

(00:42): So the time of motherhood, when your kid is wanting a phone seems to be happening at younger and younger ages, I have seriously been told by parents of kids in kindergarten being told that their classmates are coming to school with phones like Holy cow, how is that even possible? But there comes a time when yes, you want your kid to have a phone or some way to stay in touch with them, or they stay in touch with you or for you to just know their whereabouts. So what do you do? Do you give them a smartphone? Do you not give them a smartphone? What do you do? I know you're probably like, Oh my God, I don't know if I can give them a phone or you're like I was, and you have no glue of the dangers or think that your kid is just going to somehow know how to swim in this world of all the digital things and that they will come to you.

(01:38): If there's some concern or danger or somehow you will get a red flag or know when you need to step in and provide more guidance. Now, if you've been following my podcast at all, you know that the head in the sand method doesn't work out very well for most moms these days or kiddos. So let's take a more proactive stance. Let's be that mom that gets educated. And that's what I'm here for. I'm going to provide you with five options to consider. If you're going to give your kid a phone or needing to backtrack on what you've already given them. Okay? So you have the mindset that you want them to have something, but you don't want them to have access to the entire world. You want to take baby steps into this process. You want to put floaties on them like you're teaching them to swim.

(02:23): So where do you start? The first option is a flip phone. They do still exist. And basically you can call them. They can call you the drawback is they usually don't have GPS capability. Like we are accustomed to with our smartphones these days. So if you're just needing to know where they are, it might not be the best option. The second option could be a gab wireless phone. I know you've listened to my podcasting and you've heard me say this before gab wireless phones look like a smartphone, but they do not have the internet capability. You can't send and receive pictures that you can text back and forth. You can call and you can listen to music. And there's a calculator on the phone. It looks like a smartphone, but it doesn't have all the capabilities. The third option is a locked down smartphone, the dumbed down smartphone, one where you have given them a smartphone, but you have put a monitoring device onto the phone to where it limit screen time.

(03:21): It limits what they can access. You put controls on there to where they can't download new apps. And you are in their business. When it comes to that phone. The drawback of this is much of what most of us have already seen is that there are ways to get around things. There are loopholes. There are options in different apps that are very, very hard to monitor. So this option is the scariest option of them all, but it is one approach that you can take. The fourth option is a gizmo watch. If you have not heard of these, and you have a young child elementary age, early middle school age, check these out. I wish I would have. I've had this when my kids were young. These are basically like a watch like a smartwatch, but they're not smart. They are a way for you to keep in touch with your kid and your kid to keep in touch with you.

(04:10): You can call, they can call. You can text. They can text their texting capability is simple phrases like I'm at school. Come pick me up. I love you. Or they can send emojis and they can only send in receive from your approved contacts, which is up to 10 contacts that you put into their watch. It also has GPS capability, but only accessible by you. As the parent sets it up. It is not accessible by the other contacts that you put in there that are approved contacts for them to keep in touch with. You can set it up to where it should that's down during school hours. The drawbacks of it are they can take it off. And it seems to have a low battery life to where you have to make sure you plug it in every night. And then some kids don't like the band that it comes with, but you can buy other options on Amazon.

(04:58): A really cool success story that I heard is that of an eight year old, where the kid was in the back seat of the truck that was stolen and the police were able to track him down by the gizmo watch that he was wearing. I thought that was a really, really cool success story in terms of the gizmo watch. But basically it is a way for you to keep in touch with them. They can keep in touch with you. They can do the predefined phrases for texts, but they can also talk to text and talk, send a voice message through the watch. So it's a great way for them to be out with their friends. You know, like if you live in a neighborhood where they ride their bike to a friend's house, or just a way for you to kind of know where they are and for them to be able to get in touch with you.

(05:42): And then the fifth option is what is called a relay go device. This is really, really cool. It looks like a little speaker. It's a little small square thing. You can wear it on a lanyard, like on a necklace. You can put it on like an arm, older thing, or they have a couple of other ways that you can carry it, or you can put it on a backpack or a bike. These relay go, things have a GPS device. They have a way that's like an SOS notify nine one, one alert thing on them. They have it where you can set up a defined area that they are supposed to be in, like such as the school campus. And you're alerted if they go outside of that, they have parental controls that you can set on them to where only a preapproved contacts are able to contact them and vice versa.

(06:28): And it's just a really cool way for you to be able to keep in touch much like the gizmo watch, but they don't have to wear it like a watch. So personally looking at those five options, if I could go back in time, I would most certainly do starting out the gizmo watch or the ready go device. And then I would go to a gab wireless phone and then I would go to a smartphone, preferably an Android, one with monitoring systems on it, like bark and circle. So check those things out. Let me know if you have any questions, I'm going to drop the links for these in to the show notes. So please check them out with those links with gab wireless, I have a $5 off coupon code for you to use. Just click the link and use be that mom, when you purchase, they're actually at the time of this recording, 50% off for the phone.

(07:19): And then with my code, you get an extra $5 off for bark. If you use be that mom, you get 20% off your subscription for the life of your subscription. So check those things out. I think these are really, really good options. Of course, everything's going to have some sort of limitation, but in terms of keeping our kids safe, I think these are amazing things for us to have at our fingertips. So don't fall prey to the pressure be that mom be proactive. And while you're at it, jump into my free community on Facebook and text me at five zero five, nine, seven, be that mom so we can stay in touch. Okay, have a great one. Go out there. Be that mom, your kids are going to love you for it. And you are going to build a strong foundation on which they can build their dreams. Okay. So don't give in, have a great one.

(08:09): See you next time. Thanks for tuning in being that mom isn't easy, but together we can be that mom's strong. Don't forget to leave a review, connect on social and join Dolly's free community till next time.