Dad Takes a Hammer to Teen's Cell Phone Over $5K Bill

lmao..... I thought it was me at first I had to reread that. I feel my I.Q. drop 10 points.

That's what happens when you text and blog.

maybe by "sans cell phone" they mean "without a cellular". That's my best explanation

Please tell me you guys know that "sans" is french for "without"? People use it in English for emphasis. Careful with those 10 IQ points, you may need them :-)

John, I believe Michael had a problem with "Dena has pulled her grades gone back up" rather than "sans." It looks like the author has cleaned up the flub, though, since by the time I looked at this article, it read "Now sans cell phone, Dena has pulled her grades back up..."

The good ones do offer the text blocking feature.

You need to check your facts. Most all of the cell phone companies do offer the ability to block messaging. But people also need to take responsibility for their actions when using a cell phone.

Well if carriers do allow total SMS blocking then I'm mistaken. I've tried this with Sprint a while back (since I was getting alot of spam texts for a time and didn't want to have to e-mail all my clients a new cell #), and the first thing they did was try to offer me an unlimited SMS plan. I already had that; so I'm not positive that they were really on the ball, most CSR's I've encountered with Sprint surely are not. Luckily it all became a moot point as I don't get any of these texts anymore, still.

The whole point is that there need to also be devices that can easily have the SMS feature blocked in menus, as in there is no way to access any sort of texting features. It simply would not be there. Most of these young kids have phones at a young age for either emergencies or so their parents can be able to get a hold of them easier. But kids are kids here, and I realize no amount of parenting can 100% assure that someone's child won't do something they're not supposed to. That's why as a parent, they've got to just step it up. If any parent thinks for a SECOND that kids don't fire off rapid texts 24 hours a day, they're an idiot; I even manage to send over 1,000 a month and I'm in an office 50+ hours a week. Do some kids refrain? Oh yeah sure, but with unlimited SMS a mere $20 per account each month, why risk getting a $5k bill when all they'd have to do is flip the switch and boom, no risk on the SMS portion.

I dunno, parents don't enforce the rules, plain and simple. Making adjustments to the phone accounts is IMO part of enforcing said rules. When I was a kid, I knew if I had a cell/pager in school, I could be expelled for it, or if I had a nice teacher/faculty member catch me with it, I'd at least have it taken away. And guess what? I never used them in school, and kept them hidden on my person. My parents made me promise that I'd only use it for certain things; and call me crazy but my folks brought me up well enough to respect their wishes. I never ever got my cell or pager (it was the 90s, pagers were in style) taken away. It's all about the parenting. Lazy people just need to step it up. If the kid dicks off anyway, then she needs to babysit her little heart away all summer and school year weekends to pay me back that $5k.

J - " So, my girl has a phone--might look into one with GPS now so I can KNOW where she is."

geez, that will help.
Over-parenting, a sure way to push your kids into rebellion.

How about building trust from an early age and give them the chance to learn from mistakes. I guess if you screwed that up, there is no other choice than to over-parent. But rest assurred, when they earn the freedom through age, it will not be a good path they take, usually.

Better than under-parenting.
Have a sister-in-law that could care less what her children are doing. Her oldest is in the same grade as my oldest and he's anti-social, has awful grades, has been in ISS soooooo many times and her youngest (who is 2 years younger than her brother) is already a slut, like her mother. So, you tell me which is better, under-parenting or over-parenting. At least I care enough to KNOW what my children are doing, what their grades are, who their friends are, etc....
She is learning to not to use her cell so much tho. She keeps using her minutes up within 3 days of getting them uploaded. That's 27 days, or so without a phone!

Ouch. As a teen with a phone reading everyone's messages hurts. I am an A+ student and I am going to enter college as a second semester Junior. AT 17!!! Not all of us adolescents text. I have a cell phone and I only text rarely to my dad when he is in a meeting and I need to tell him something important.

But on to the topic I was going to mention. The whole over-parenting idea, its great… until you push your kid over the edge. Parents need to know when too far is Too Far. The GPS thing is ridiculous. The reason your teen/child is rebelling is probably because they don’t want people breathing down their necks 24/7. And with under-parenting, they are crying out for attention. Parents as the intelligent adults they think they are, need to find the balance. Times have changed people, come out of the Dark Ages.

Both of my children started with pre-paid phones it allowed them to understand how much time spent their cells is goign ot cost them, they had to go in and pay the bill ( I had to take them) but it was their responcibility to deal with the people at verizon. They both have a regular play now and do extra chores to earn the $10 that it cost me. They also know that I have the right at any time to open it up and see what and when they are texting. When my son started driving he had to text me to tell me he got to school safely, but for only the first month now he jsut texts me to let me know if he wont be home when he said he was going to be. Its about trust and respect which goes both ways. My daughter isnt in high school yet so she only takes her phone to school if she knows that shes going to need it after school or on a field trip. I lucky both of my kids understand the value of a dollar and that trust and respect are something that if they give it to me i will give it to them. its all about finding a balance in over parenting and under parenting, I agree that over parenting only leads to kids who will rebel and sneak around to get there privacy, and that under parenting is nothing more then jsut parents be lazy.