16 Comments
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Grey Hamilton's avatar

Ross, this is awesome. My wife is due with our first, a girl, on April 2nd. This kind of intentionality and wisdom is what I aim & aspire to bring to the raising of our daughter. I’ve been feeling the (proper, I think) weight of that aim as we approach her birth and have to admit it’s quite intimidating - maybe chiefly due to the disappointing lack of examples, especially in detail such as this. Even from afar, this helps to ameliorate it a bit. Thank you.

Any and all future parenting experiences and thoughts will be welcomed by this reader 😂😂

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Ross Byrd's avatar

Aw man, that's so good to hear. Congrats on the baby girl! May she be blessed in every way. Thanks for this kind note.

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tel68's avatar

This is excellent!! Thank you so much for sharing this and for the wisdom and reasoning behind the gifting of her first phone. I appreciate you sharing the contract and your trust in your daughter.

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Ross Byrd's avatar

Thank you! So glad it was helpful. Yes, we have an awesome daughter. She's been a good role model for the others.

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John k's avatar

This is great Ross. As a fellow parent of a 16 year old, I love how intentional and thoughtful your family is. Thank you all for sharing this.

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Ross Byrd's avatar

Thanks John! So cool you also have a 16 year old. It's a crazy challenging time for parenting, but a good one.

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Nicolas Kane's avatar

Bring back ceremony... ("and his readiness to spoil for everyone else the proper pleasure of ritual.") for your neighbor/city/church

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Ross Byrd's avatar

Yes indeed.

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Marjorie Anne Foster's avatar

Needed! Thanks for sharing ❤️

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Ross Byrd's avatar

Thanks Ma!

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O.G. Rose's avatar

Excellent piece, and I think it is brilliant to make the giving of a phone more of a ritual. That I think frames well the gravity and the potential for the flame.

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Ross Byrd's avatar

Thanks! And thanks for the wisdom you added to it.

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Brandon Clements's avatar

This is awesome. Appreciate you sharing it!

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Ross Byrd's avatar

Thanks Brandon!

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ICI Grief (The Rebel's Hike)'s avatar

Ross, this is great! I'm going to restack using The Rebel's Hike Continues substack later today. One of the characters in our book has similar rules for the use of her cell phone (but she got it at age 12). In addition, my co-author is now 15 (11 when we started writing) and recently had her phone taken away by her caregiver for not understanding its power entirely. I can't wait to share this with them. She now understands her accountability, and that she may never get that phone back. I admire her grandma (and you and your wife) very much.

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Ross Byrd's avatar

Thanks for sharing! Whew, yes, it's a hard thing to learn.

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