As a parent, your worst nightmare is losing your children. You’ve been a teenager before so you know how important it is to be able to express your independence but you also know how aggravating it was when your parents wouldn’t let you go certain places because they said it wasn’t safe… in your mind, back then, you were thinking “what do they know…” But because you’ve “been there, done that,” you know that your teens feel the exact same way… and can you blame them?
Your teen may resent you right now for not letting them go certain places or be out past a certain time of night but what your kids don’t understand is that we live in different and more dangerous times now. Things are totally different than when you were a kid and as parents, it’s important to help your kids understand just how dangerous it is out there.
How many times has your phone pierced your ears notifying you of missing person’s alerts in your local area, especially for kids? More often than it should but that’s because kids are going missing every day! According to parents.com, a child goes missing or is abducted every 40 seconds in the US. Just this year, a 15-year-old Apopka girl went missing back in January but was later found at the Orlando International Airport. That particular investigation is still ongoing but it should send a message to parents that it can happen to your child too.
Because our children encounter unsafe situations on a daily basis, it’s important to equip your child with a cell phone. Now, before you start to roll your eyes or come up with a doze reason why your child doesn’t need a cell phone, have you ever thought about why your child needs a cell phone?
Your child having a cell phone is going to be your lifeline to your child. Yes, cell phones are expensive and you don’t want to spend money on a phone that your teen is going to lose or break but the thing with buying cell phones is that you don’t have to spend lots of money on them. You can browse used iPhones for your teen. This is going to give your teen a new model phone but it’s also going to be a way to keep the lines of communication between you and your kids when you’re not around.
As you already know being a parent is stressful and all you want is for your child to be safe, especially when you’re not around them. So, to put your mind at ease, there are apps out there that monitor your kid’s whereabouts when you’re not with them.
Now in order to do that, most apps are going to require you to sync to your children’s phones and that’s okay. You can make that installing a tracking device on their phone “part of the deal” in order for them to have their own phone. They may not like it but it’s something that can really come in handy one day.
The great news is that you can install these apps and stay connected to your kids without invading too much of their privacy. Teens need their privacy because even though they think they’re all grown up, they’re still venturing down the many avenues of self-discovery and it’s important for you to let them grow up... but you can still give them privacy and have them check-in with you on where they are.
To give yourself some peace of mind, take a look at some of these helpful apps that will help you keep track of where your kids are.
As much as we don’t want to believe it, our kids don’t always listen to or do what we tell them to… instead, they lie and say they’re at a friend’s house when they’re really at their boyfriend’s house. You’ve probably caught them in a few lies before so now it’s time to show them that you mean business.
Find My Kids-Footprints is going to allow you to see where your kids are (their actual geographic location) in real-time. If they’re lying about where they are… you’ll know instantly.
As mentioned earlier, your teen is still going through a journey of self-discovery and in self-discovery, it may involve them going to the internet for answers. Your teen’s curiosity may be to look up pornographic sites because they’re ready to take things to the next level with their girlfriend or boyfriend but they could also be looking things up like how to kill themselves or how to protect themselves from bullies.
Whatever their curiosities might be, Net Nanny will alert you of things your teen is searching for that might be of concern to you.
It is more of a monitor of your home to check what your teens are doing while you’re away. Maybe you and your spouse are going on a week-long anniversary trip to Fiji… You tell your teen that no one can come over and no parties. Well, your teen heard you but wasn’t listening to a word you said! They go and throw a party anyway and have the house in tip-top shape, just how it was before you left.
Alarm is an app that lets you monitor your home with live video footage. If you didn’t have the Alarm app, they might have gotten away with it but Alarm alerted you as soon as it happened so the punishment is up to you but first see if your teen lies about it.
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