My kid is going crazy with texting.. am I the only parent dealing with this.

[mg1942]

Of course that'll make your child text the police and have you arrested, but hey---

We got one big texting bill on my daughter's phone so we switched to a plan that has unlimited texting. Problem solved.

Whatever works man

I'll bet my house that UNLIMITED DATA will be next to your plan because kids will be downloading songs/games on a phone

[ROX]

discreet communication. 

text is used when you try to contact someone who is in a meeting or attending church.  You don't want phones ringing in these occasions.

Quick!

Someone buzz back in time and meet Moses just before he comes down from Mt. Sinai and have him chizel another commandment in the tablets!!

"11) Thou Shalt Not Cell Phone Text in the Church, Temple, or Tabernacle"

[mg1942]

Check this out, when kids asks (or beg) for UNLIMITED DATA, they're doing it for this





^{only available in Asia... at least for now}

[Gunthr]

Gunthr what cell company do you use?

Actually, I have a Kajeet phone for my kid, so its easy to make the phone unusable during any time period of any day in half hour increments or whole days, and to block anybody you don't want them talking to, and you can see the activity online anytime.  I'm just amazed how strongly and quickly these kids take to it....

[whiteman]

get'em the jitterbug cell for old people, 3 buttons.

[Kanth]

I don't see what the problem is.

Was it the bill?
or him shirking responsabilities because of texting or what?

not sure what 'going crazy' with texting means realistically.

[Gunthr]

She is 13 years old.  If I let her, she will pretty much text back and forth all day long with her friends even while she is doing something else at the same time. It seems like a bit much to me. 

I do have her phone configured so she can only call 911 or her parents and grandma during school hours.  When she gets out of school, the phone comes back on until bedtime at 830 pm, then goes off until 730AM. Then it comes back on until 900AM when the school bell rings and stay off until school is over. Then it goes on again until 830pm.

She's on spring break right now, so I lifted the time constraints.   (she has unlimited texting right now.) Since this morning, she logged 263 incoming and outgoing text messages until she went to bed at 10pm.   It worries me a little... wondering if this is addictive behavior or something.  She's a good kid, no other problems, but I was just wondering about this. 

[SD67]

Crap that's over 14 messages an hour!
Yeah I can see how that could be seen as being a bit much. hopefully her fingers will get sore and she will ease up on it a bit.

[Larry]

My little sister ran the phone bill up $1200 with texting one month. Funny thing is we found out that most of the texting was done after 7PM when calls are free. She didnt like what happened after that.

[eskimo2]

This sounds like an addiction/obsession to me.  It’s pretty normal for teenage girls to be obsessed with their peers, boys and socializing.  Non-stop texting does sound a bit disturbing, however.  Limiting texting at school and night is smart, unless she knows how to get around it.  I’d check the bill/records to make sure.  The fact that it bothers you is enough to do something about it.

If a child shows addictive or obsessive behavior towards anything (watching TV, using the computer, playing D & D or talking on the phone) it’s probably wise to impose further limits.  One problem with this generation is they have so many distractions they are not learning how to devote their complete attention to one conversation.  Even adults now will break a conversation with the people that they are with in real life (in their car, restaurant, etc.) to talk on the phone.

How often does she play visit her girlfriends?  She’d be better off visiting them face to face in my opinion.

[DREDIOCK]

As the Parent YOU make the rules.
Like I tell my kids.

"This family is NOT a democracy. Its a dictatorship. And you aint the dictator"

An option you can take is let them pay their own bill under their own account.
Let them be solely responcable for their cell phone bill and DONT help them monitarily with it.
When they are faced witht eh choice of texting or having money.
they will get the idea

[kennyhayes]

now something i can help with       something that would stop me is takeing away my cell if  i text   like over some type of limit srry bad a spelling but   give a limite then if he/she/grub goes over that limit  make them pay the amount of money that is over it.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Get a flat rate connection with unlimited text messages. Problem solved.

[APDrone]

My co-worker was telling me how his son racks up over 200 messages in a week.

Another co-worker has her parents on her account and got billed for 'spam' text messages. ( $.20/message )

The next day I called Verizon and had texting completely blocked. 

No need for it.  None. 

[mentalguy]

Hmm... The only reason I use texting is that I dont have a good signal here. So I just use texting, or I use the house phone.

If I were you, I would get unlimited texting and make them pay for it.