Cell Phone Etiquette for Kids

Tweet

We can all benefit from better cell phone etiquette. So parents, it’s up to us to teach our children cell phone etiquette from the first time a child uses a cell phone.

When your child buys or receives his or her first cell phone, talk with your child about cell phone responsibility. Specifically, cell phone responsibility falls into three areas:

1. Cell Phone Safety: NO phone/digital use while driving. Make it clear with your child that cell phones are not to be used while driving—no talking, texting, emailing or any other digital distraction while driving is acceptable. Teach this precept when your child first starts using a phone and again when your child starts driving (presuming the phone precedes the driver’s license).
   
   
2. Cell Phone Etiquette: Cell-phone communication does not pre-empt in-person communication. Specifically, no phone use at a dining table, no phone use when interacting with a store clerk, carrying on a conversation with a friend or listening to a teacher.
   
   
3. Cell Phone Care: The cell phone is the responsibility of the owner—if it breaks or is lost it’s on you. In other words, if your child lends his or her phone to a friend and the phone is broken, dropped or used inappropriately, your child takes responsibility. Think before lending your phone
   

Think of it as an easy version of the S-E-X talk-- it's the S-E-C talk for cellphones. Set these cell phone habits – safety, etiquette and care—from day one and we’ll all be happier and less annoyed by inconsiderate, irresponsible cell phone users.

-free zone

Tweet

My life has become a series of –free zones. My driver’s seat is a cell-free zone. The dinner table is a telephone-free zone (cell or land). I attempt to keep a computer-free zone in my family room and kitchen immediately after school to ensure I can focus on my children as they return home. Each of these zones is intended to reduce my multi-tasking.

I recently read, not to my surprise, that multi-tasking is an oxymoron. We cannot focus on two disparate tasks simultaneously. A condition that is abundantly clear as I attempt to write amid the chatter in the orthopedists’ waiting room. There’s the toddler dancing around the mom and continually chattering until the mom says, “behave or I’ll call daddy and then you’ll be in trouble.” (I didn’t think parent’s used this threat anymore). Then a quiet pause for 30 seconds or so followed by, “okay, call daddy.” Several other people waiting chuckle along with me. See, even in writing I have been completely unfocused by trying to blog while listening to idle chatter.

Sure, there are plenty of –free zone established for the comfort and safety of the public—smoke-free zones, cell phone-free zones, even backpack-free zones to improve security or minimize shoplifting. But my –free zones are more personal—an attempt to reduce the clutter in my mind and allow me to live in the present. Just this morning I found myself creating a daily to do list while I was in the shower, then I paused and thought to myself, the shower should be a list-free zone. Perhaps I have created a whole new compulsion— -free zones. Maybe I’ll create a –free zone-free zone…