THOUGHTFUL PARENTING

Kennedy and the Machine

8 Rules for Kids with Cellphones

Once my daughter Kennedy was old enough to stay home alone, the question of getting her a cellphone also came up. Suddenly, I was thrown into unfamiliar territory. Parenting is a challenge when the problem takes on weighty, almost absurd levels of symbolic meaning. And in today’s world, few things carry more power than the glowing screen of a phone — destroyer of innocence, bane of ambition and the ruin of many a teenager.

Despite the available parental control apps and some common sense (she doesn’t have access to any passwords), there is no question she has greater access to the world than I ever did at her age. As a kid, I remember walking across town just to flip through a Playboy magazine the neighborhood boys kept hidden under a rock in a grassy field. By comparison, her phone offers a lot more terrain with untold surprises lurking underneath the rocks. It’s incredibly nerve-wracking.

So I did what any naive parent would do. I created a list of guidelines for responsible phone use, hoping that words alone could inspire good behavior.

1. Do not lose the $600 supertoy.

This rule has not been a problem. Why did I even think this needed to be a rule? She knows where her phone is at all…