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Comment by dotancohen | Hacker News Reader

This is not Reddit, you do not need to prefix comments with personal attacks. Nor is karma farmed here by insinuating that you are poor, confused about your gender, or had abusive parents.

If by "bubble" you mean my family, nobody but the eight year old has seen a new phone since before the first COVID lockdowns. And the phones that my children use were are purchased with money they earned themselves - including the eight year old. He decided at six that he wants a phone, and saved for two years to buy one - not a grain of which was aquired through his parents.

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I don't see that as a personal attack. It is factual. No teenager - except the richest ones - can afford buying a new smartphone every year, neither do their parents.

And most of those that can afford it would still want to buy other things instead when they already have one, which means only the richest of the richest ones really do that.

The "attack" was deciding that I live on a bubble of rich parents. In fact, my own mother wouldn't be hungry during dinner many evenings while we were growing up... only years later did I realize why.

Have you ever heard of financing for things like that? Great way to get people to get stocked up on things they can't actually afford.

There are so many things you can finance at the same time until it isn't sustainable anymore.

Maybe having a phone at six is normal now but it sounds crazy to me

I'm 15 and I don't even want a phone, this thing is a goddamn headache, portable little advertisement device hurdling me with ads even when I run GrapheneOS and it depresses me mine (pixel 5a) is the last that will ever be made with a headphone jack, which I literally rely on, earbuds don't need a battery. I use it because it's what I can get and I didn't make my financial decision on it.

He got the phone at eight, but in general I agree with you.

As a father, I see the phone as an opportunity to teach limits from an early age. And wow, does he test those limits! In retrospect, it is better that him and I are going through this testing phase at eight, rather than in the rebellious teenage years.

Genuinely curious - how did your 6-8 year old earn an income that didn't come from his parents?

He walks smaller dogs and sells drinks that he makes at the football field near the house. The neighbour lets him pick lemons to sweeten the drinks. He worked for two years to buy the absolute least expensive phone available. I did buy him a case as a gift for achieving his goal, though: $3 on Aliexpress.

I should mention that he also managed to buy two goldfish during this time - also with his own money. So he learned very well to budget, and that each thing that he buys along the way pushed back his goal.

Really cool!

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