Stupid Money-Senseless Parents

PiKe said:
How are kids meant to learn the value of things if they're handed to them on a silver platter?
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LizardKing said:
These parents are setting themselves up for a hard life later on.
Child tantrums are a lot easier to handle than 16year olds!
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Burnsy2023 said:
I can't help but think they are doing long term damage to their kids by doing this.
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Totally agree. My bosses kids both had iphones3 aged 7 and 10. Amongst 100's of other presents the 7 year old is getting two of these for xmas for his xbox:

http://playseat.com/shop/xbox-steering-wheel/playseat-takuma-sato-porsche-911-turbo-s.html

And then my boss is complaining his eldest daughter has no manners, is nothing like the polite friends she has and he's fed up with her attitude!
 
I wonder if there is a minimum age on the insurance, giving an 8 year old a phone is pretty much a guaranteed replacement at least once.

Also, 8 year old's don't need phones, I was 17 when I got my first one and I had to buy that myself!

The cost is irrelevant imo.
 
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Instead of 800 to 1000 the cost was 80 to 100 or maybe even 8 to 10, at which price point do you say, yeah whatever I don't care.

Once you have found your comfortable price point then try to work out how many people are earning 10 or 100 times as much as you, why should their outlook be different to yours just because you haven't got those extra zeros.
 
Seven year olds need phones like they need a kick in the head. They need toys, games, puzzles and books.
 
Sp00n said:
I wonder if there is a minimum age on the insurance, giving an 8 year old a phone is pretty much a guaranteed replacement at least once.
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AFAIK mobile phone insurance usually only applies to the owner/contract holder.

If the parents can afford it, then go for it, but kids being spoiled is a different matter.
I would not buy an 8 year old an £800 gadget that they will carry everywhere.
 
For me it's less about the cost and more about the need for an 8 year old to have a phone. I can't see the need whatsoever.
 
They're going to end up with one spoiled teenager to look after. You reap what you sow.

Oh and I'm in the "No way should an 8 year old get a phone" camp.

I have no problem with expensive presents if you can afford them but spoiling your children will never end well, especially if you do it all the time.
 
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Our 10 year old wants a iPhone, he won't be getting one, we even decided against an iPod touch as there's just no way he'd look after it and he's a pretty good kid.

I agree with the sentiment that they're just making a rod for their own back later on and that at these ages they should be getting toys, puzzles etc.
 
Greebo said:
And then my boss is complaining his eldest daughter has no manners, is nothing like the polite friends she has and he's fed up with her attitude!
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Perhaps he should take a day off work, get hold of her smartphone, new laptop, bedroom TV/DVD, etc etc and take it all to the charity shop.

Then when she returns, she can have new ones as and when manners develop? :p
 
I can write volumes on how money screwed up my family and how the poorer side done well for themselves. Even if I turn out to be one of the 'haves' in society, I'll still make my children work for their pocket money one day. I was taught the value of money and have felt the lack of it. I look after it. My cousins never did as it was bountiful when they were growing up. They're mid 30's today with not a tuppence to their name or any inkling of a career.
 
I was given every present i wanted for my birthday or Christmas up until the age of 16 i dont think their was anyone in my school who had as much cool stuff as me yet i was not a spoilt brat one bit. Just because somebody gets good presents on special occasions does not mean they will grow up spoilt or ungrateful , their are far to many factors which will influence the personality of a child that stating it as a fact is just plain wrong.

Infact i would argue it had a good effect on me. I was used to the best of pretty much everything and i knew that if i wanted to continue to get the best things then i needed to work hard in school and get a good paying job, it gave me motivation and a goal to aim for.
 
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Sp00n said:
I wonder if there is a minimum age on the insurance, giving an 8 year old a phone is pretty much a guaranteed replacement at least once.

Also, 8 year old's don't need phones, I was 17 when I got my first one and I had to buy that myself!

The cost is irrelevant imo.
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The contract would be in the parents name, so insurance isn't really an issue. A child of course wouldn't be able to take out a phone contract in the first place.

I too got my first phone when I was 17. It was one of the very first pay-as-you-go's on Cellnet, an unwieldy large Philips thing. There were only a few other people I knew that had one, when I started Uni the following year, most people got one not long after starting if they didn't already.

I can't imagine what schools must be like now with kids all having phones, especially smart phones. I think it's best to give kids a cheap phone really. When I was a kid and needed to call my parents, such as to get them to pick me up, there were phones in the school that everybody used with a BT Chargecard or Phonecard. Obviously those have basically died these days due to phones, so I can understand kids having them.

Watchdog had an article on the iTunes mobile store a few weeks back, because a Father had discovered his 6 year old was playing an iPhone Game where it kept wanting to buy extra 'Sea Shells' which were charged as an in-app purchase. The kid had basically run up about £500 worth in spending on the game. The Father's main complaint was that when you entered a password for iTunes on the iphone that it stays in memory for a period of time, rather than asking you each time.

At the end of the day, I thought it was a petty argument to be on Watchdog because the issue was that he had given the phone to a young child. Really anybody sensible wouldn't have this issue because they would be old enough to use it.
 
It is just ridiculous to think that an 8 year old would just be given what hard working adults like me and most of the others in this thread have had to work bloody hard to get! I have to work quite hard to sustain my iPhone 4 that I purchased with money that I had earned. I look after it too. What motivation do these kids possess that will make them look after it?

None.
 
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