I am getting my first grader a cell phone.

Before you throw your hands up and scream in horror, I am doing this because of the absolute, cold terror that I experienced when she didn’t get off her school bus the other day.

It turns out she was busy talking to her friend – explaining how important she is in the grand scheme of things or something to that effect, and didn’t notice the stop. When she realized she had missed it, she promptly and calmly told the driver, who being a sub that day, did not know to immediately inform the school so they could let me know.

So there I was at the stop, certainly not behaving as calm as my child was at that very moment, calling the school, waiting while they contacted the transport department and checked with her teacher.

It may have been only five minutes or ten or was it twenty? All I know is that I had no idea where my child was. By the time the school called back to say she would be dropped off once the bus circled back from its last stop, my legs felt like jelly and I could not feel my extremities.

That’s when I realized if she had had a cell phone, I could have called her immediately. I would not have had to take this side trip to hell and back.

When we got home, I fed her cake and ice cream to make myself feel better and got onto the Internet. I did some quick, thorough research into all the ‘kid friendly’ phones on the market and hit the buy button.

Is it unseemly for so young a child to have a cell phone? Am I wrong to make use of the technology out there? For now though, I have some peace of mind.

By Tania Malik

Labels: Tania Malik

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