how young?

How young do you think is too young for things like cell phones, iPods, and laptops? My kids are age eight and four, so I figured I had about four years to be worrying about that kind of stuff, right? Well . . . .
Some kids in Brianna's school have cell phones. When the bell rings after school, you can see plenty of six graders bring out their phones and start talking. What on earth they have to say or who they're calling is beyond me. Nevertheless, they do it. I think it's too young, but whatever. About a week and a half ago, Brianna had a friend over. They were having a snack in the kitchen and I heard them talking about another friend of theirs. Their other friend apparently has a cell phone and tells the girls that she uses it to text message. She's in third grade. Her mom picks her up from school, so it's not like she needs to call someone to check in. I can't imagine why she would need one. Now the other little girls in the group of friends are all talking about what color and style of cell phone they want. I'm hoping Brianna wants one of those imaginary ones because that's what she's getting.
About laptops . . . Brianna is still not at the age where she absolutely needs to use the computer for homework. Just recently she started having to look things up. Definitions and such. I was a little surprised that their directions were to "google" something. Anyway, less than one month ago, Rodrigo called me from work and asked me if Brianna needed a laptop. I was a little surprised and thought he was joking. I was going along waiting for the joke but he was completely serious. They often have surplus sales at this work and he wanted to bring home a laptop for Brianna. I thought he'd lost his mind. I explained to him that we already had too many computers as it is in this house. He keeps saying how poor Brianna doesn't have her own. I don't get what's so "poor Brianna" about that. Again, she's eight. I think that if we let her have one now, what kind of liberties is she going to expect once she's a teenager?
Now onto iPods . . . . Mine was a mini and also a shuffle. Rodrigo had one of those video ones. He won an iPod touch at a raffle at work and gave me his video iPod. Or just plain iPod or whatever those are called. Now I had three. I gave my old mini to Brianna. I went back on forth on that one, but I finally caved. I removed everything and now she's filling it with music she likes (The Jonas Brothers, Ally & A.J. and that whole Disney Channel crowd). Her teacher had a meeting last Friday night and Brianna brought along the iPod. She was showing it to all her friends while the parents and I were talking to the teacher. I was regretting it at that moment. I could already hear the other kids telling their parents "Well, Brianna's mom lets her have an iPod, why can't I?". -groan- I was really regretting it later when four year-old Alec asked me which one was for him. Pssh.

feeling: old
listening to: Incubus (Nebula)