Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

What is it with these mobile phones? Mine had them for their 16th birthdays, less than four years ago. My older one was nearly 17 before he got his.


We didn't even have a landline at home until after I ws married. I remember the second Christmas I was at University and I had a boyfriend, I spent about 3 hours in a phone box on Christmas afternoon chatting to him.

englishangel wrote:What is it with these mobile phones? Mine had them for their 16th birthdays, less than four years ago. My older one was nearly 17 before he got his.
We didn't even have a landline at home until after I ws married. I remember the second Christmas I was at University and I had a boyfriend, I spent about 3 hours in a phone box on Christmas afternoon chatting to him.

I guess it must be something to do with convenience and comfort...

Hi, I received a first call from DS on Sunday evening. I knew it was him because of the (bee-boo) pips, I bellowed to him to put the phone down and I would call him back. I did this using the caller I.D. to ensure I was ringing the correct number. The phone just kept ringing and nobody picked it up. Initially I thought maybe there's no 'ringer' in the house and he has to pick it up at the correct time, so I sent him a text message advising him to just pick up the phone anyway, but to no avail. Running out of ideas, I then started dialling the other 'house' numbers, he answered the very first alternative number I tried. So quite strangely enough, he dialls out on one number and receives a call, on the exact same phone, but with a different number.
I can confirm that the 2nd Formers are allowed their mobiles, only after the first weekend leave. They do have to hand them in every night. My own views on mobiles have eased over the years. My eldest was not allowed a mobile until he was 15, I was pretty firm in my belief that he didn't need one up untill that point. However, now, three years later and I kind of feel that I missed the whole point back then. It's not so much that 'they' might need one but more, as parents, we need them to have one. That being said, we bought DS one for his 11th birthday at the end of last year. We had applied for CH and he had also sat his 11 plus. The grammar school applied for was 'out of county' and would of meant an hour long journey each way, every day. I felt I couldn't ignore what is, in effect, a rudimentary GPS tracker for children. If you were inclined to, you could ask your child to take a pic of where they are or who they're with, to confirm what they are telling you. On Sunday the mobile was very handy in resolving the problem of the house phone, they are, in my opinion, a quite useful parental tool.
When he started CH, four weeks ago, DS was given a fob that did not work. However, he assures me that it's not a problem as there are ways and means of gaining entry without a fob and without any 'help'. I would rather not say too much as this is an 'open' forum for anybody to read. I would like him to have his own working fob though, and I'll continue to press him on it.

So, DizzyDad, I take it we can assume all is well with DD-DS!!

Trouble is all I get are texts saying "5.57 train", or "pick-up 10.30", if I didnt have the mobile husband would have to walk the 1/2 mile from the station.

DizzyDad wrote: However, he assures me that it's not a problem as there are ways and means of gaining entry without a fob and without any 'help'.

I remember when a boy in Lamb was trying to get into a fobbed door by ripping it open, as the magnets keeping the door shut could be overpowered by sheer strength, and he ripped the whole door frame off! It was funny at the time... not so funny later

DizzyDad wrote: I can confirm that the 2nd Formers are allowed their mobiles, only after the first weekend leave. They do have to hand them in every night. My own views on mobiles have eased over the years. My eldest was not allowed a mobile until he was 15, I was pretty firm in my belief that he didn't need one up untill that point. However, now, three years later and I kind of feel that I missed the whole point back then. It's not so much that 'they' might need one but more, as parents, we need them to have one. That being said, we bought DS one for his 11th birthday at the end of last year. We had applied for CH and he had also sat his 11 plus. The grammar school applied for was 'out of county' and would of meant an hour long journey each way, every day. I felt I couldn't ignore what is, in effect, a rudimentary GPS tracker for children. If you were inclined to, you could ask your child to take a pic of where they are or who they're with, to confirm what they are telling you. On Sunday the mobile was very handy in resolving the problem of the house phone, they are, in my opinion, a quite useful parental tool.

Although I don't have any kids, I would be very much of the 'nastymum' approach to motherhood . However, a mobile phone is one modern luxury I really can see the point of kids having, as long as there is a sensible credit limit and they understand it is not just for chatting to pals, but is a security aid to communication with parents.

One of the reasons my kids don't have mobile is that we can't afford it. Joining this to another thread, if you have mobile , cable TV and so on and you can still pay the school fees then you are amazing.Please teell me how you do it.The other reason, which is more to the point, is that they simply don't need them.If they want to talk to someone they get up and walk over to their house. They don't keep other pupils awake talking late into the night and they don't have text messages going off until all hours of the night either. They have never been involved in bullying by text messaging. The secrets they keep from me are not kept on a mobile phone.
If they forgeet their fob then they stand in the rain. Next time they remember.

nastymum wrote:One of the reasons my kids don't have mobile is that we can't afford it. Joining this to another thread, if you have mobile , cable TV and so on and you can still pay the school fees then you are amazing.Please teell me how you do it.The other reason, which is more to the point, is that they simply don't need them.If they want to talk to someone they get up and walk over to their house. They don't keep other pupils awake talking late into the night and they don't have text messages going off until all hours of the night either. They have never been involved in bullying by text messaging. The secrets they keep from me are not kept on a mobile phone.
If they forgeet their fob then they stand in the rain. Next time they remember.

Oh how I agree! Me and my two 19 year olds have Tesco pay as you go mobiles and I paid for them until daughter went to Uni and son started working. I think we spent about £10.00 a month between us, if that. Daughter reckons she put £20.00 on hers last year.

Ajarn Philip wrote:So, DizzyDad, I take it we can assume all is well with DD-DS!!

Hi Arjan, yes DS is doing fine. Thanks for asking. We are still waiting for the 'wobble' that often comes in the first few weeks but he seems to be taking it all in his stride.

nastymum wrote:One of the reasons my kids don't have mobile is that we can't afford it. Joining this to another thread, if you have mobile , cable TV and so on and you can still pay the school fees then you are amazing.Please teell me how you do it.The other reason, which is more to the point, is that they simply don't need them.If they want to talk to someone they get up and walk over to their house. They don't keep other pupils awake talking late into the night and they don't have text messages going off until all hours of the night either. They have never been involved in bullying by text messaging. The secrets they keep from me are not kept on a mobile phone.
If they forgeet their fob then they stand in the rain. Next time they remember.

As I said the phone was a birthday present and cost less than £20 on a 'pay as you go' tarriff. Its like anything else he has, or had, if he misuses or abuses it, he loses it, simple as that. I would expect CH to do the same. It was as much a present for us as it was him. We thought he would be going to the 'out of county' grammar school, we never seriously thought he'd gain a place at CH at that point. At 11 years of age and with all the inevitable late and missed buses, we couldn't really ignore the technology that is there. A quick text would of put our minds at rest knowing he missed the bus and is on the next one.
Unfortunately many of the fobs either don't work or will only work intermittently, due to wear and tear on the magnetic strips, apparently. So whilst I don't think a bit of rain ever done anbody any harm, I would not like to think he was late for lessons etc becasue he couldn't gain access to the house, through no fault of his own.

J.R. wrote:Who remembers, amongst the oldies on here, how you could 'fiddle' a call for free on the old 4d (penny-in-the-slot, call boxes ? (Pre-decimalisation.)

Getting back to my question, obviously no-one here is old enough to remember how one could get 'free' calls from the old Button 'A' - Button 'B' phone-boxes.

Sometimes I think life at Horsham may have been much more humane than Hertford. We didn't have a payphone for pupils' use until the postal strike in 1970, and then it was just the one for the whole school. I don't remember any more being added before I left in 1975.

Certainly remember sitting in a 'queue' half way up the stairs in the science block waiting my turn for the phone!! Awful as you couldn't have a private conversation or if you did it was carried out in theatrical hisses and whispers hoping to God that the person, senior, BA whomever hadn't come in while you were on the phone and wasn't consequently sitting further up in the stairwell listening while you moaned about them!!

Happy Days!!!!

J.R. wrote:Getting back to my question, obviously no-one here is old enough to remember how one could get 'free' calls from the old Button 'A' - Button 'B' phone-boxes.

Did it involve a penny attached to a piece of string?

You young things! We didn't have any chance of phoning home, we survived.

I do remember the phone boxes at college. I knew someone there, with a foreign mother (European but cannot remember the nationality), Mother was very very liberal in her views, daughter didn't live up to Mother's hopes. Conversations got louder and louder that No daughter had NOT lost her virginity yet, Yes she still intended to come home in spite of this lack of experience, No she did not intend to rectify this omission in her education before the end of term, Well if she wasn't welcome at home she would stay with one of her mates.

I wonder what happened to her?

Katharine wrote:You young things! We didn't have any chance of phoning home, we survived.

I do remember the phone boxes at college. I knew someone there, with a foreign mother (European but cannot remember the nationality), Mother was very very liberal in her views, daughter didn't live up to Mother's hopes. Conversations got louder and louder that No daughter had NOT lost her virginity yet, Yes she still intended to come home in spite of this lack of experience, No she did not intend to rectify this omission in her education before the end of term, Well if she wasn't welcome at home she would stay with one of her mates.

I wonder what happened to her?

I dread to think! I doubt her father felt the same way...