My daughter who is 10, almost 11, got her first cell phone the other day. This is a subject that has been brought up over and over again in our household. She wanted one, we thought she was too young and didn’t need one. “All of my friends have one”, she would exclaim over and over. Which, she was right, most of them do have one.

We finally broke down and got her one because you see, we don’t have a land line. My husband and both have cell phones and we always put mine down as the “main phone”. Well, that started getting irritating real fast.

My daughter’s friends would call my phone all the time. Sometimes I would be at the store, or out some where and I would have to give them my husband’s number. We have also started to leave her at home by herself and I would be panicked because she didn’t have a phone. She also often rides her bike to a friends house and she walks to and from school by herself. It just became clear that the girl needed a phone.

She has been on cloud nine since she received it and even told me that her life feels complete now, lol. That’s my girl.

Her phone has already been a nice convenience. We have a finished basement in our house and our daughter has her on little wing down there. She has her bedroom, a “hang out room” (don’t call it a play room) and her own bathroom. Yeah, the girl’s got it made. When I need her though it can be so annoying to run down the stairs while I have something on the stove or am just being plain lazy. I kept telling my husband we needed to put in an intercom system. Now we have one! I was screaming down the stairs yesterday and she couldn’t hear me. Then I remembered she had a cell phone. Nice.

I know a lot of people may think that she is too young for a phone, but I truly believe age doesn’t necessarily matter. Am I going to get my 4 year old a phone? Well, no and my 9 year old doesn’t need one either because he’s never home alone and the kid lives at the gym. (He’s a competitive gymnast and loves it.)

I do believe it depends on the child and the circumstances. Sure, someone will comment how she’s too young and we are spoiling her. Oh well. Let them comment. I really could care less. I swear I got “the look” from a mom at the mom tonight as my daughter pulled her beautiful purple cell phone out. I just smiled because I know we’ve made a great decision for our child and our family. End of discussion.