Hello,

Is there any chance that someone on here has an old but working smart phone lurking in a drawer that they wouldn’t mind parting with?

We’ve had a bit of a situation with Darwin being at my in-laws this week where they’ve kind of restricted our access to speak to him. They did it last time he was there as well. It’s been upsetting as he seems to be unwell, and I think he has fifth disease, but they haven’t actually let us know and we have been trying to find out information but they’ve been completely unforthcoming. Yesterday he borrowed a phone and phoned us in floods of tears, and much as I never thought of ever getting him a phone at this age, I have come to the conclusion that it would be good for him to have unrestricted two-way calling access to us whilst he was away.

It wouldn’t be something he used often, just whilst he was staying with grandparents etc, so something we could stick a SMARTY sim in a couple of times a year would be perfect, so he could call or FaceTime us if he wanted, or so we could call him at night.

So I was hoping someone might have an old handset in a drawer, or some idea of where I could get an old working handset for, for not much money, that would still work for calls and ideally video calls.

I think we have one, Mimi. We’re away until next weekend though now so can’t be 100% sure. If we do have one you’re welcome to it. I’m sure others will have something too if you needed sooner.

Hi, Mims

I've got a Samsung Note 10 that I'm just charging up now after it's been drawered for six months. The only issue with it is that the power button falls out, but if it was taped over or CAREFULLY glued it'd be fine in a pinch.

That said, the rest of your post reads a bit like something from Reddit! They've restricted speaking access to your son? He might be unwell? He's upset? The hell is that shit? Your kid, your rules surely?! On the plus side fifth disease disappears pretty quickly at least!

EDIT: Sorry, hadn't seen Zardoz's post when I wrote this. Offer's there if you need it tho.

Cheers folks,

Zardoz, I’m in no immediate rush. We are picking him up tomorrow (we did offer to drive straight up and pick him up yesterday but he wanted to see how today went first), so really it is for ‘next time’. He’s off to his other grandparents in a week and a half, but they are a lot more understanding and will keep us very much up to date and look after him. Thanks Blucey, if Z can’t find his then I will take you up on that and try my best (I can’t pretend that I’m a great fan of superglue as I seem to always seem to have some kind of mishap).

And yes, it’s been a bit of a shock. We had some degree of it last year, but this year has been worse. Maybe because he is eight now and he’s his own little person. But he was upset and distressed yesterday, and he’s hit enough emotional intelligence to say that he was upset and all he wanted was a bit of comfort, but they told him that his crying was annoying them so he was to go away and come back when he was less annoying.

I’m not sure if it’s Fifth Disease. It’s so hard to tell precisely BECAUSE they won’t show us pictures and kept on sending passive aggressive messages about us even asking after how he was, but then when we got on that video call with him yesterday he was absolutely covered all over his arms and legs, whereas we thought he’d had an allergic reaction as he got a rash on his cheeks with a lot of redness in the cheek area last Saturday, so the body rash has appeared over the last few days, but obviously we don’t actually know when.

Gaz hap has linked to some handsets on CEX if I can't set him up with something, but I don’t want him to be stuck in this position again if he decides on another visit in the future.

Sorry to hear all this.

I've a keen interest in low cost cellphones, as I dislike spending money on them nowadays, and I only really use it for basic high school girl stuff.

I used one of these for a while and it was fine with me dropping it two or three times a day. Does everything you like for £125. I got rid as the screen eventually fell off after I demonstrated its robustness to a barmaid in New Brighton

realme C35 16.8 cm (6.6") Dual SIM Android 11 4G USB Type-C 4 GB 64 GB 5000 mAh Green https://amzn.eu/d/0hyaCqFw

I currently have a HMD Pulse Pro which has a 50 AI camera and the screens and other bits are replaceable. It was about £150 and I really like it too.

Also, Amazon are good at returns.

BigOne has a Motorola 5 thing, which is quite good.

I recently bought a phone for my MIL and the best budget pick was the Nokia G42. The most common one is BRIGHT PINK but they do it in grey. Seems solid so far.

Thank you Mali, for the thoughts and for the recs. £125-150 is more than I have for this purpose right now (might be something to look at again in a few years too me when he’s travelling to school independently or similar, but right now as it’s only going to be used for very specific occasions I wasn’t really thinking of buying new.

Do you actually need a smart phone, or will a simple handset do the trick?

I’ve got an old iPhone in the draw. I think it’s an iPhone 8. You can have that if you want? It’s been sat in the draw for ages and I was planning on drilling a hole through it and throwing it away.

I did think about a simple phone handset. The only reason I thought of one with a screen is because Darwin usually likes to videocall if he has the choice (I guess being away from home seeing your folks is comforting when you are that age, and if I’m honest, it’s good to see him too, partly because of things like this rash he’s had whilst away (which, by the way, I’m now pretty certain has been Fifth disease now that I’ve seen it properly, but it’s fading and he’s much better).

If it still turns on then that would be brilliant if it’s easier than @Zardoz looking for his?

Well, I just charged it up to see and apparently I forgot to factory reset it. Plus it’s got a passcode and I’ll be damned it I know what it is. You might have to wait for Zardoz, I’m afraid… sorry.

Pretty sure there's a spare smartphone at my Dad's. I'll see if I can acquire it when I next call in

I've got a google pixel 2 complete with spigen case (virtually bomb proof) you're welcome to. Not sure what the battery life would be like at this point but for low level stuff it should have plenty of life left in it.

I have an iphone 6.. it is old but still works.

Sorry folks, busy couple of days trying to catch up, post illness, now Bean is back. He’s well, and no major fallout from picking him up (though some proper weirdness at the in-laws, though that’s for another time, but it was suggested that Bean was a drug addict because he had Piriton to stop his rash itching). Honestly, I’m just… anyway.

If anyone is willing to ship a phone that still runs and isn’t being used to me I’d be very grateful and would of course cover all of the costs, etc. Darwin is back off to (another set of) his grandparents a week today, but they are very much more supportive by way of just letting us know he’s ok and getting him to give us a goodnight call in the evenings, so it’s not urgent by any means. I’ll probably relent closer to the time but at the moment I’m not sure exactly willing to let him go and stay with the in-laws anyway, because there is some kind of power play there that I seriously do not care for.

Anyway, he’s home

Yeah, that sounds weird as anything. Having to introduce some clear boundaries about overnight stays won't be fun but is probably for the best.

It probably makes sense to pick one of the same sort you use because it'll make setting up parental controls easier, I'd have thought? What phone have you got Mimi?

Glad he's home

I know that would beat whatever I have rattling around in the draw at home.

It was my lads first phone.. the glass is chipped so could not sell it.... little monkey.

I have parents control set on his phone it is standard on iPhones. I upgrade mine and pass it down

That’s a good point. I’ve got an iPhone and Russell has an android, so we could work out either, I think.

Ace. In that case, I can just post you my spare. I'll get it to to the post office when I get a sec. You'll want the "Family Link" app for the parental control stuff on android

Thank you so much, Jem. I’d really appreciate that.

I’ll get the family access set up so that he knows he can reach us any time that he needs.

I’ll pop you my address in a DM and of course arrange post costs etc via… PayPal?