Poll: If you had a 12 year old daughter...?

[Mikaela Stewart]

My daughter will follow along in some of my childhood.
1. Yes. I would get her a phone. I would by her an iPhone, because I could keep up with her and text her when she needs to come home.
2. Her allowance would be monthly, and it would be 15-20 dollars.
3. Yes. But I need to meet the boyfriend first, to make sure he won't hurt her.
4. I would allow her to have gadgets, as long as she does it the way I grew up: I approve, and she saves up for it.
5. Bedtime on a school night? Hmm...I'd say 9 o' clock. I won't give her a bedtime too early, because she's twelve.
6. Friday and Saturday bedtimes...10 or ten thirty. maybe quarter to eleven. Not going over midnight.
7. No. When I was really little, I went to church almost every sunday with my Nana and sometimes my Mom and always a brother or two. As time went by we barely ever went. But it is still her choice.
8. Yes. I will remind her to do it until a certain time.
9. Depends if she needs to have it done by Monday or Tuesday.
10. Yes, but not all the time. Once and a while is nice.
11. Yes. I had to do something to be active all the time as a kid. She can choose though.
12. In the middle. I don't want her to be overprotected. I don't want to be overprotective. I grew up a bit overprotected.
13. Depends. As long as she won't say it too much.
14. Same with the previous question. She will be severely punished if she swears too much.
15. No. She can wait until she's in grade 9. She's too young for high heels.
16. As long as it is appropriate. I must approve first.
17. No way! She's mature enough to know what websites to stay off of!
18. Dust, make her bed, clean her room. Same chores as I had as a kid.
19. Depends. If it was far, bus. If it was close, she can walk or I would drive her.
20. As long as she promises not to be inappropriate.
21. Like my Mom and Dad would. I know it doesn't sound right, but call the office, or give her advice.
22. I would help her out, or call a tutor.
23. Clean her room and make her bed. Making her bed should be done every morning, in fact. Dusting can come along when needed.
24. I will ground her from one or two gadgets.

[Jellybelly123450]

Seeing as I'm thirteen, and I've always had a strong opinion of how I'll raise my kids one day, here are my answers;
She would have a phone of course, a blackberry 9320 or an iPhone she could choose.
She would have a weekly allowance of probably £2.50 making that £10 a month, but for going out and stuff, I'd give her extra.
As long as she wanted to, I would let her date, to ascertain extent of course. No 17 year olds lol.
She could have whatever gadgets she wanted to have, as long as she was responsible with them.
10 pm on a school night, 10:30 maximum any other time.
She would not go to church, as I am not a Christian, but an atheist.
She would have a time of after tea no matter what; 7:30 or so, Neil she is finished, but if she wanted to do it earlier, she would be welcome to.
Fast food I would be quite strict and say n more than 2 meals a fortnight, but coke and fanta etc n more than 3 a week.
She could choose what she wanted to do about extra curricular activities. I would encourage her to do something, but wouldn't force anything upon her.
I would be quite laid back, and let her do what she wants, to a certain extent.
Saying oh my god is fine, swearing like shit, or what the fuck, I wouldn't mind, as long as she want over using it, or constantly swearing, and I wouldn't allow her to swear at anyone directly, or about anyone either.
I don't care about hi heels, as long as they're not stripper heels.
If she saved up long enough I wouldn't stop her buying anything.
No, no children block, I hate them, because they filter out things that aren't even bad.
She would have to put her won laundry in the basket and make her won lunch and breakfast, but nothing big.
She would have to walk.
She could have BBM, Facebook, but not twitter cos I don't like it lol.
I would take any bullying to her school, but any minor friendship problems I would stand back and make her own decisions.
I would help her with any homework, But only if she wanted me to.
She wouldn't have any chores, but look after any pets she had, like clean them out etc, walk them etc.
She would lose her weekly pocket money, or tv time.
That was fun lol

[swim4life]

1. Would you get her a phone? If so, which type / model? Yes, but it would be a small model, older phone, one of those flip phones.
2. What would her allowance be, and would it be monthly or weekly? I've never had allowance before but I guess it would depend on what she does. I guess like $2 a week or less??
3. Would you let her date? No, it's too young, the point of dating is to potentionally get married, which most likely won't happen at her age
4. What gadgets would you allow her to have? a netbook and iPod
5. What would her bedtime be on a school night? It depends on how busy she is, 9:15
6. What would her bedtime be at the weekend? Again, it depends, 10:15ish
7. Would you make her go to church regularly? Yes, I love my church
8. When would you make her do homework on school nights? After dinner and sports
9. When would you make her do homework on weekends (Friday night, Saturday or Sunday)? She can do it whenever she wants, as long as she doesn't complain to me about "how much" she has to do
10. Would you let her eat fast foodd, and how often? 2/3 a month, just not to go and eat out for fun, but on special occasions
11. Would you make her be active and do extra-curricular activities? Yes, play sports and be involved in school
12. Would you be strict or slightly less strict and over looking? I wouldn't be really strict because it becomes pushy, but I'd make sure she isn't like crazy
13. Would you let her blasphememe? (say 'Oh my God' etc) No
14. Would you let her swear? No
15. Would you wear her high heels? No
16. If she saved up for long enough, would you let her buy whatever she wanted? Yes, because she worked for it, as long as it is reasonable
17. Would you put a children block on her laptop (if she had one)? No she should no what she can be doing online and not be doing
18. What chores would you give her? empty dishes, clean her room and make sure her bathroom is cleaned up
19. How would you make her travel to and from school? Would you drive her? If I worked at the school, I'd let her come with me every morning, but she'd ride the bus unless there was a problem
20. Would you let her have twitter, BBM or Facebook etc? No, not at 12
21. If she said she was having trouble with friendship / bullying at school, how would you deal with it? I would do something fun, like shopping or going out for ice cream and talk about it there
22. If she said she was having trouble with schoolwork, how would you deal with that? E-mail the teacher and ask for assistance, or practice worksheets. Also, if she could come by after/before school for some help
23. What chores / jobs would you have her do weekly? same as 18
24. What punishments would be in store if she was to misbehave or not do chores? I'm not sure, I guess just not give her the allowance for the week/month

[royalbird]

1. No, a 12-year-old does not need a phone.
2. Her allowance would be based on the money chores she did. We pay allowance monthly.
3. No, a 12-year-old is too young to date.
4. Probably the only thing she'd have would be a laptop computer, but that's only if it was needed for school.
5. Curfew would be 9 pm on a school night. (a 12-year-old does not need a late hour social life)
6. 10 pm on a weekend. (see above)
7. She would come to church with the family, yes.
8. I would expect her to do her homework right after school, but it would be up to her. If she's failing due to not getting it done, I would get strict about it, but by 12, she should have developed good study habits.
9. If she had homework on weekends, of course she would be expected to get it done.
10. If we ate fast food, I would let her. We hardly ever do, though.
11. I would encourage her to be involved in different activities, yes.
12. I think a lot of people in today's modern world would consider us strict parents, but I think we are less strict than our parents were.
13. No, swearing and such is not allowed in our house.
14. See above.
15. I doubt I would wear her shoes.
16. Not whatever she wanted, no. If she wanted a horse and saved up for that, I still wouldn't let her get that unless we had a place to keep the horse. But, yes, I would encourage her to save up for the things she really wants.
17. I really don't know...we'll get to that when we get to that. I guess it would depend on how trustworthy she is.
18. She would have the same chores as any other member of the family, most of which my kids do already at ages 9, 8, 6, 5, and 1. Setting/clearing the table at mealtimes, clearing out the dishwasher, washing dishes, sweeping/mopping floors, vacuuming, feeding the dog, cleaning bathrooms, dusting, any outside chores and money chores she's given. Making her bed and keeping her room picked up I consider self-maintenance, not chores and those would be expected.
19. Depending on how far we lived and whether or not there's a bus, she'd either walk, take the bus or get a ride.
20. At the age of 12, no she cannot have a social media account.
21. I would talk with her about how to handle it. Depending on how serious it is, I would contact the proper school authorities.
22. I would help her myself or find a tutor for her.
23. See number 18.
24. She would be grounded and possibly more severe depending on the misbehavior.

[Seryph]

Okay, here goes,

1. Something like a HTC Wildfire, on a £15 a month contract. Something she can contact me on if she needs to, play the odd game, and keep in contact with friends.

2. Probably about £30 a month, that's what I got. Its enough to go out to the cinema and get lunch three times a month, or buy something nice with.

3. Um.. well she's twelve so I expect her to mostly be interested in books, films, riding her bike or playing an instrument or whatever, she can have male friends but really dating seems a bit far.

4. DS or similar hand held console, the family Wii/Xbox, and the family computer, maybe a Kindle if she reads a lot and is not likely to break it. Possibly a tablet but I would ask that she left it downstairs over night.

5. Around 9 or 10, depending on what time she has to be up for school. (Lights out by 11, so she has some private reading time)

6. 10 generally, 11 or midnight if there is something specific happening like a film or documentary or a family event. (Lights out by midnight, so if she stays up that late there is no private reading time)

7. No, I do not attend church myself. However I would happily take her if she wanted to go.

8 & 9. Any and all homework must be done, her homework schedule and activities would determine when homework was done, but I would expect a few hours during the week and a few at the weekend. (Subject to compromise if there are things on she wants to do or see during normal homework time provided homework time is made up elsewhere.)

10. Yes, possibly once a week or so, provided her other meals were balanced.

11. I would encourage it. I wont force my child to do anything, however. But she would have been sent to dance, acting, music, drama, swimmimg etc lessons since early childhood, to try everything.

12. Provided she doesn't break my rules I will be fairly flexible.

13. Yes, it doesn't bother me since I'm not Christian.

14. Perhaps. If she burnt herself and exclaimed an expletive I wouldn't punish her. If she swears at me, she will be in serious trouble.

15. Nothing higher than two inches.

16. With in reason. If she could make a reasonable argument for why she wanted it then yes.

17. There would be a child block on the family computer, she wouldn't have her own for another year or so, and that probably wouldn't. Once she was thirteen if there are no younger children the child block would come off the family computer.

18. Keeping her own room tidy, setting the table for dinner, cleaning away her own breakfast things and something like putting the hoover round or doing the dusting.

19. It depends on where the school is. If there is a bus service she could get that, but if I could drive her and that's what she wanted then I wouldn't mind taking her.

20. No, since you are supposed to be over 13 to use them. And I don't see why she needs it just yet.

21. Swiftly and strictly. I was bullied as a child and I think its disgusting how poorly schools deal with bullying.

22. I would help her as best I could, and if she was still struggling I would get her extra help.

23. See 18.

24. Grounding, having her phone/TV/internet/gaming/going out/ and personal time before lights out privileges suspended. The number of things taken away would vary depending on what she had done. In my household the worst punishment of all is to have your books taken away.