Mom, I Need A Cell Phone!
Annabel is very active in many different activities and is very involved in cheerleading and gymnastics. She has recently been moved up this year to an intermediate level gymnastics class. Which has been great for her. She has been placed with several girls that are on the same skill level as her and being with them has provided Annabel a lot of motivation to want to work hard and progress on her tumbling skills.
The same thing that has been beneficial about being moved up, mainly being motivated by older girls, has also proven to cause a few problems here or there. She is 6 and most of the girls in her class are at least 2-3, maybe more, years older than her. Because of this she has started talking a lot about wanting to look older, or fix her hair a certain way so she can look older. And the worst thing yet has been asking for a cell phone. I guess many of the girls in her class have their own cell phones. Annabel now thinks she needs her own cell phone to text her friends. There is no way I am getting her a cell phone but I also try to explain nicely that none of her 6 year old friends have cell phones so honestly there wouldn’t be anyone for her to text.
I love that Annabel has progressed in her gymnastic skills and has been allowed to move up to this class and I know she has truly loved it however, I want my 6 year old to stay 6 for a while! They grow up much too fast as it is, I am hoping that she will slow down on wanting to look so much older for a little while!
Does your child want to act or look older? Have you had to deal with the cell phone issue yet?
Just this evening, my nearly 8 year-old son told me he needed a cell phone and an I-Pad. To play games on, not to text… yet. He was quite disappointed when I said it was going to be quite a while until he got either.
He has a friend whoes younger brother, who is 5, gets to use an old cell phone I guess to play games on. My son doesn’t understand why he doesn’t get one since he’s older. I just explained to him that in life there will always be people who have things that you don’t have. Eventually he will get a phone I’m sure, but like you, I sure hope it’s not until he’s closer to high school.
Good luck! I have a one-year old daughter and I’m terrified of what I’ll have to face in the next five years. :-)
Amy,
It can often be so hard for children to understand why another child can have something and they can’t. I just went through this AGAIN this weekend because a friend of Annabel’s has Facebook and I of course I have refused to let her have her own. She just doesn’t understand.
I am hoping it gets easier as they get older but we shall see.