I came home from work last Monday (the kids' first day back to school after the Christmas break) and my 13-year-old son proceeds to name off a few of his friends who received cellphones for Christmas. Really, I thought. That's nice. Then he tells me that if he ever gets a phone, he wants an iPhone 5. "Oh yeah," I say, as I start to prep for dinner. "But, you're 13. Why do you even need a phone?" I ask. "Well, to keep in touch with you and Dad, of course." He's a real charmer, that son of mine. "Oh really! That's why you want a phone?" "Well, yeah – that and the fact that all my friends went long-boarding today, and because I don't have a phone, I didn't know about it." Honestly! You'd think calling the landline was taboo around here. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Image via CrunchBase."][/caption] And then the following day, back in the office, Donna Paris, our senior life editor, showed me this. It's an iPhone contract written by Huffington Post blogger Janell Burley Hofmann to her 13-year-old son, Gregory. I think the idea of having your child sign a contract before giving him or her a cellphone is sheer brilliance. I love everything that it stands for and all that it implies – not only in regard to the ownership of the phone, but for life in general. Although I'm not running out and getting my son a phone anytime soon, you can bet your bottom dollar that, when I do, I am going to incorporate bits and pieces of this contract into an agreement between the two of us. In looking through the comment box at the end of Hofmann's post, however, it appears that not everyone agrees. So now I'm curious: Where do you stand on this? Yay or nay to having your child sign a contract before you hand over a cellphone?