Not judging anyone personally, just for the sake of discussion in general, I'm kind of surprised that so many people feel their kids need a phone because they are in activities. I have to wonder if we have lost the need to slow down a little. If soccer practice is scheduled from 5:00-7:00, but it happened to end at 6:30, I wouldn't see it as a big deal if my kid had to wait for her ride for 30 minutes, she would not melt. She can hang out, read, or talk to her friends. If I got there at 7:00, and practice ran a little late, it wouldn't bother me in the least to just wait. I can understand that there are sometimes exceptions to end times, but I can't believe so many organized activities go on with people have no idea when they will be done. What did we do back in the 1980's? Somehow we made it work, and there was never a long line of 30 kids waiting to use a school phone after practice either. A few maybe, but really, not that many people needed to communicate with their parents immediately. Why do we need to today?
I remember being in carpools when I was younger that worked just fine before cell phones. When I was older, I remember just being independent, walking home or riding my bike home from games and things (that was a small town, of course. But in the city we live in now, both my kids have been exposed to and learned to use public transit in their early teens) Or maybe catching a ride with a friend, or stopping at a friend's house sometimes on the way back from school or an after school activity and then just using their landline to check in and let my mom know where I was. We did a lot more communicating beforehand too, so before school I would just tell my mom, I'm going to the library after band practice. And she'd say, OK, be home by 6 for dinner. I knew I'd be walking home, or maybe if my friend Jane arranged to go to the library too, I could catch a ride home with her mom if she was being picked up. No need for a cell phone. I wore a watch. We used landlines at school and at businesses, but only very rarely if we really needed to. I find it hard to believe this kind of thing would never work today. Are we even willing to think outside the box? Have we just become a society used to instant everything and fear our children would be unsafe without a phone or constant supervision? Sure it's probably way less convenient than instant communication but I wonder if the benefits of kids not having their faces constantly glued to their phones or getting everything instantly might outweigh some convenience.