Another one bites the dust!
Many of you know how SD15 is with her electronics/devices. Last week, the iPod screen was shattered. I found out yesterday that her phone screen is shattered now, too! She has been bugging all weekend about getting a new phone, complaining that her phone is slow and plain and isn't a smartphone, and now I know why! When I found out, I looked at DH with SD15 right there and said, "THIS is why she will NEVER get a smartphone!" I made a huge point about it, so hopefully if DH was even considering replacing the phone with a smartphone, he won't! Here is the problem, AT&T has moved to this new way of buying phones...you pay $0 down, but you pay $30 or more a month on your bill depending on the phone. You can replace the phone in 1 year, but the phone you turn in has to be in PERFECT condition! If not, you pay out the phone for the remaining year before you can get a new one, AND have to pay full price for a new phone if you really have to get a new phone. Umm...considering this is the 5th broken phone/lost in 2 years for SD15, oh HELL no! Yeah, you can get insurance...which we have on this phone, but it is still $50 a pop every time you have to use the insurance.
But SD15 is really buggin'!!! I'm going to have to stand firm on this, so wish me luck that DH doesn't go around me on this one! I'm telling him that he needs to start eBay shopping for her phones, because I'm tired of her going through electronics faster than he goes through socks! Socks are cheap...electronics are not! Of course, that is only when her phone gets to the point it is totally unusable. I'm telling him she need to suffer with her phone. She will never learn to appreciate and take care of her stuff, because it is always replaced. BS19's screen got cracked at work soon after he got it (the day he ordered his case, he jumped out of the back of a guy's pickup after loading it, and the phone slipped out of his pocket and fell flat on the face on the pavement). BS19 put the case and screen protector on it anyway the day they came in, and used the phone like that for a whole year until he came eligible to get another one (he became eligible early because of the new way AT&T started doing their phones). BS19 bought a case that day in the store for the new phone! Just buy a case for SD15's phone? Yeah, that still wouldn't work! She had cases for both of her destroyed iPods. She decides she doesn't like the bulk of the case and takes it off...all the freakin' time! I highly doubt she would keep one on a phone, so that would be $50 for a good case wasted!
She gets a job and raises her
She gets a job and raises her own funds. Very easy. But, I bet your DH gets her a new phone. Also, insurance on these phones is the biggest scam. You could save the amount of money you pay in insurance a month in a separate acct and have the amount for a new phone minus the $50.00 you have to pay to use your insurance. Insurance like this is where these companies make their largest margins.
I could only wish!!! SD15 has
I could only wish!!! SD15 has always had everything handed to her. My bios never had it like that. While SD15 lived with BM all those years, if SD15 wanted something, BM would demand it out of DH! You can see the difference...both BD23 and BS19 take care of their stuff, and SD15 doesn't. Both of my bio kids have things from their childhood that they kept because it was important to them...BS19 still has his version 1 Robosapian! He got that a really long time ago! SD15 would have managed to break it in some way the first year...BS19 took very good care of it, and it still works perfectly! He will even still play with it every now and then, just because he likes to make it fart, burb, and do the cat call whistle. LOL BD23 still has EVER pokemon card she ever got, and EVERY gameboy device (she has 2 original gb colors, a gb advance, and a gb advance sp)...she even still plays them...says she just feels like playing pokemon every now and then...LOL.
Try refurbished phones. My
Try refurbished phones. My SD dropped hers down IDK how many flights of stairs at school. AT&T rep said it looked like a nail was ran thru the screen and it busted the video display.
Edited: SD doesn't have data either so she got an old flip phone of mine. One of the ones that if you wanna txt the letter S, you have to hit the 7 key 4 times. Oh well, she doesn't want to hear the advice of carrying a purse to keep phone and her things in so that is what happens when you don't listen to an adult.
The way AT&T are doing phone
The way AT&T are doing phone these days, it is going to be harder and harder to find the refurbished. I looked on their web site, the phone she has right now that was the $30 one, they want us to pay full price for now, because it isn't under the NEXT plan...full price is $147!!! I looked on eBay, someone has the same phone there with only a few scratches for $12!
The other reason I refuse to let SD15 have a smartphone is because she WILL bust our data plan! DH said, "Well, tell her not to go over X data." Right! Like she has been told not to do about a billion other things, and she does it anyway! Between destroying electronics and going over data, that could get really expensive really fast...no thank you! Not when it comes out of MY pocket! If DH had all the extra money in the world, sure...he could give her what he wants. But as long as his income doesn't even really cover his half of the bills + SD15's actual needs + his expenses...yeah, if it is coming out of my pocket, the answer is NO!
Of course, that would still
Of course, that would still mean $100 phone every few months, because she WILL break it! On top of the cell phones she has destroyed in the last two years, there have been 2 destroyed iPods, 2 destroyed tablets, and a destroyed laptop! And she uses way more than 300 minutes talk time...we have unlimited talk and text on our plan. SD15 thinks that she and the boyfriend have to talk from the time she gets home from school until she goes to sleep...UGH! So, you take care of one issue and get another.
these kids dont need any kind
these kids dont need any kind of phone, period.
somedays i wish i could hunt down and kill the first parent that got the bright idea to get their kid a phone which then started this whole phenomenon.
I know how you feel!!
I know how you feel!! Sometimes I wish the cellular phone was never invented! I'm not just talking about kids, but adults, too! Sure, I like not having to do like the old days and sit at home and wait by the phone if I was expecting an important call about something, but there are too many people out there who have NO cell phone etiquette at all, and are actually dangerous with them! I've gotten stuck behind a woman at the drive through who was at the speaker and told the people in the place to wait so she could finish her phone call before ordering!! Then, there are the people who talk loudly on their phone in stores so EVERYONE knows their business! Let's not forget the one day I was actually scared for the kids in this car because their mom was swerving all over the place while she was texting and driving!
Then, you have the kids!!! It started with the portable game devices....heads down in their games everywhere they went. Now, they have smartphones that do everything...camera, music, games, text...heads down and headphones in everywhere they go. The only time they look up is to take yet another selfie! Granted, in the 80's I was one of those kids who had my headphones on plugged into the Walkman in my purse, but at least our heads were up looking around at what was around us! We also weren't so vain to think that we had to take a picture of ourselves and post it on the internet every 5 minutes of our life!
We took SS16s phone last year
We took SS16s phone last year because of grades. His mom got him a new phone...she's awesome.
Oh yeah, we still had a contract for six more months. FTS!
ss12 lost his phone and
ss12 lost his phone and hasn't told his mom yet, grandpa (BM's dad) bought it for him. He shattered the screen on the ipodTouch that FDH bought him, got it fixed and now it's lost too. He thinks it's a joke and just smirks and won't talk about it. When I was 16 I had a prepaid phone so that when I traveled with drum corps over the summer I could call back home. I would be gone touring for several weeks at a time, but I kept it close because if it was gone, I wouldn't get to call home! Not to mention he's lost the phone at school and someone turned it into the office, then left it in his bed several times so FDH had to drive it back to BM's house when FDH lived 20min away from her. SS12 knows now if he leaves his crap here, we're not paying a 1/3 tank of gas to get it back to him or sitting in the car for 3 hours! He's ruined two laptops as well..These kids either buy their own so they care for it more or just don't need these items at all. Be strong!!!