how long should a parent pay for a kid's phone?

JSN said:
American kids are not generally expected to be independent until after education is complete.

Honestly I think a lot of the time when people try to force indepenence say right after high school, they’re just setting their kids up for failure. Like @Ottawaguy mentioned, often the pursuits that lead to quicker and more complete financial independence are better served by heavy support than the sink or swim style of parenting that was common in past decades when things like housing, automobiles and college were more affordable.
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I fully agree that parents should support their kids financially, to a certain degree, until they completed their education. That's what Asians does in general.

But I always had the impression westerners "kick" their kids out the moment they goes to college.
 
5crew said:
I fully agree that parents should support their kids financially, to a certain degree, until they completed their education. That's what Asians does in general.

But I always had the impression westerners "kick" their kids out the moment they goes to college.
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i doubt that’s true in just about any western country anymore.

My parents families were essentially like that but as I mentioned earlier the price of necessities and schooling were much less expensive then. And higher education was less necessary as well.

I think that’s a good system when viable because you end up with more fully developed people. It doesn’t seem like a great way to go anymore though.

What would probably be a culture shock for most other groups is the degree of autonomy people have as a basic value underlying the anglophonic cultural world. The idea that you’re going to marry someone your parents tell you to or follow a career path they’ve set out for you or a set of hobbies is barely a thing. In fact a lot of books and movies specifically glorify rebellion against manipulation from the older generation.
 
I had an after school job when i was 13 and over.
I also didn't have a phone until i had a license, and had to pay my own way.
I'm 32 now. No reason kids can't work while in school to pay for simple things.
 
My parents sometimes paid for my phone in college. I worked from high school, sometimes I just didn’t have enough money for everything. My parents earned good money and I could not work at all, but I was raised by an ambitious person. I was proud that in three months I was promoted from a waiter to an administrator. Talk to your son. Tell him that you will support him, but you want him to be more independent. At the moment it looks like you are punishing him, but your task is to motivate him.
I have no children, so I'm not sure that I can teach you how to behave with your son, but I expressed my opinion. I, as the son of my parents, consider their approach more productive for me. Perhaps it will be useful to you.
 
I had a job cleaning dishes at an old people's home that age, £3.15 an hour. I didn't do my homework much because I was lazy as fuck, not because I had a few hours work a week.

I think ya could help sort a job for him, paper round or whatever, but really I'm not sure it matters either way.
 
Why does he need a phone? Don't say, "in case of an emergency." You can always ask someone to make a call for you if that happens.
 
Fedorgasm said:
Just told my 17 year old son that I'm not paying for his phone service anymore.

I can afford it, but the kid has no motivation to get a job, so I figure if I stop paying for it then he'll feel some of the pain of being broke and want to get a job.

A friend of mine said I should've waited till he was done with high school, so he could focus on grades. But I worked part time when I was in high school so I wanted him to learn some responsibility like I did at that age.

As usual, I figured the best place to go for important life decisions would be a karate forum
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I'm with you, TS. I think you're on the money.
 
I was paying a mortgage on my own house before i had a cellphone. The only reason I have one now is in case I breakdown when I'm driving somewhere.
 
Fedorgasm said:
The way I worded it makes it seem like I did it without warning. My fault. I actually told him 3 months ago that I prepaid for 3 months of service and that's the last time. I did that to give him time to get a job, but he only applied to 2 jobs. He got 1 interview but I think he sabotaged it because he doesn't want to work. Then he never applied for anything else for months and now his phone service ran out.

If he were getting straight A's then I'd keep paying. But his grades have been bad the past few years. He's smart enough to be in the advanced classes but since he failed them last year, he had to switch to all easy classes this year.

He's not getting into Harvard. If he goes to college it will be the junior college probably but honestly I don't know if he'll even put effort into that or will he just get bad grades there too.

Just trying to get him to feel some sense of urgency to work hard at something.
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Thanks for clarifying. Based on the context in your post, I can't tell if you're referring to an actual junior college (a somewhat archaic term for a 2-year university, usually called a community college these days) or a lower-tier 4-year college (because he's not getting into Harvard, like you said). For his sake, I hope it is the latter.
 
His dick pic stronger than yours that phone bill no longer yours.

Kenny Florian,
The OJ trial​
 
Any phone can call 911, even with no service activated. It's the law, so without service he can call 911 in an emergency. I always told mine their grades were their currency, but if I'm being honest I caved occasionally especially with my daughter. My youngest started working Saturdays in the warehouse of his mom's store when he was 12. He's by FAR my most responsible one and saves up for big ticket items. He's bought LeBrons, an Xbox 1 and collects vintage NBA and NFL jerseys. Granted we couldn't do it without a family business, but I wish we had done it with his older sibs.
 
I'm still on a family plan with my mom and sister and I'm 29, yikes.

She never kicked me off of it or asked for money so fuck it
 
Get him an old style flip phone for emergencies. He'll get tired of all the kids making jokes about him and his old phone so he'll get a job and buy his own new phone.
 
I can't even wrap my head around this, never had a cell phone growing up

I never got one until I got married honestly 6 years ago lol
 
Lots of good viewpoints in here.

For me I think it’s gone from a luxury to a must have simply for emergencies, GPS, calendar etc. I think this is important because when I was a kid, there wasn’t anything I had that costed money each month so this is kind of a new situation for parents.

I think as long as the child is handling their business, to me that means keeping their room clean, doing well in school, staying out of trouble, than I’m fine with covering it as long as you’re in school.

My parents paid my bill for a few years when I was like 18-19 and in school. I’ve paid their cell phone bills since I was 26 and I’m 37 now. There are a lot of things your parents paid that you likely didn’t know about, I’m just trying to pay them back a little bit.
 
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