by Carolyn Robertson posted in Parenting

It's a dilemma of modern day parenting that's impossible to avoid: What is the right age for your kid to have her own phone"
My daughter just turned 11, and she's already asking about it.
"I know I can't have one now," she says. "I just want to know when, exactly."
She usually ends this discussion by helpfully pointing out that four kids in her class already have their own phones.
It's a tough question to answer. I can't exactly look to my own childhood for answers, or ask my mom how she dealt with this particular parenting problem.
When I was a kid my family rented tapes along with the VCR to play them on. So much has changed in just one generation.
Thankfully, Bill Gates is stepping up with some advice. Yes, Bill Gates. Technology genius, founder of Microsoft and a dad of three. I'd say that qualifies him as a subject matter expert.
In a recent interview, he revealed that he and his wife Melinda were forced to come up with a set of guidelines about cell phone use when their kids - Jennifer, 20, Rory, 17, and Phoebe, 14 - started asking about it.
?We don?t have cellphones at the table when we are having a meal, we didn?t give our kids cellphones until they were 14 and they complained other kids got them earlier," he says.
He adds that they also limit their youngest's screen time before bed to help her "get to sleep at a reasonable hour."
Those sound like pretty reasonable restrictions to me...