Mobile Phones for Children

Yesterday my 5-year-old granddaughter got a smartwatch with a phone built into it. She can only use it to communicate with a very small number of people. Naturally my wife and I are on that list and we have each received no less than 5 phone calls in the past 12 hours. While some might be bothered by so many calls, my wife and I love it as we enjoy speaking with any of our grand kids.

My son got the watch for his daughter to help locate her while playing with friends. she is very socially active and her parents often have a hard time finding her when it is time to come home for dinner. That is the primary reason she has the device and I agree with his thinking.

My slightly older grandson also has a similar smartwatch and he behaved the same when he got it. He wore it constantly and sent me voice messages all the time. Then he discovered he needs to charge the device and it often had a dead battery. Eventually I stopped getting messages from him and he stopped wearing the device. It became an unreliable way for me to contact him. Now that his sister has a smartwatch, they have been competing with each other to contact my wife and me. My hope is that with two of them having devices, we will have a great way to contact our grand kids.

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and mobile phones became ubiquitous, I set 15 as the age for my kids before they got their first mobile phone. I wanted them to have practice using one before they started driving. That way if something happened in the car, a child could reach Mom or Dad. Now mobile phones have evolved to contain a lot more functionality including cameras, location data via GPS, and a number useful applications. It makes more sense to lower the age I originally set but still am not sure what that age should be. Fortunately I don't have any young children as my oldest is almost 30 and has kids of his own. Ultimately I don't think there is a specific age that works for everyone as I prefer to look at maturity. Not all 5-year olds are created equal and some will do well with a smartwatch while others won't. I'm interested in your thoughts so feel free to leave a comment. Others may appreciate your advice as well.

It's A Girl!

Yesterday we had all of my children and grandchildren (all 2 of them) at the house for Sunday dinner. We had a good party and then things wound down. My oldest son and his wife stuck around a bit while I entertained my oldest grandchild. Eventually it came time to put him to bed and so we put him in my wife's sewing room. Once he fell asleep, his parents headed home for one last night of good rest. This morning my son took his wife to the hospital and this evening my 3rd grandchild was born.

At about 3:30 this morning my grandson woke up and realized he was not at his own home. He called for my wife and worried where his mother might be. My wife calmed him down and then we got a few minutes of sleep before I had to get up at 5:15 to catch my plane to the Bay Area. My wife and I thought our grandson was asleep as we got ready to go to the airport. Sure enough, the little man came down the stairs before we could get out the door. He wanted to play. We took him with us to the airport where he helped "Nana" drop "Bampa" to catch a plane.

I knew my latest granddaughter would be born while I am away but I got on the plane anyways. Grandpas are not really needed at this stage of the child's life and I would just get in the way. I will fly back on Thursday and probably get to see the newborn on Friday. In the meantime I am relying on copious group-text messages and pictures to share in the experience. I sincerely appreciate technology and the ability to instantly send photographs for these very important life moments.