Which tracker is best to track my children?

[Sayithowiseeit]

I'm trying to find a good tracker for my children, the itagpro sounds good but I couldn't work out if it was hyped up as the review person had a discount on it.

The air tag, can it only be used with an i phone? As I have an Android.

Is there any other good ones? I need it to be accurate and be able to manage distances.

Any help would be appreciated please
Thank you

What else would you call it then?

Handy

I check my husbands train from time to time. Yesterday I got to the park, couldn’t see him and tracked where he was because he practically never answers his phone (neither do I) and I wanted to see where he was.

Neither constitutes tracking his every move.

My teenage years would not have been nearly as much fun if my parents had been able to track my movements. I was rarely where I said I was going. 😂

If someone was at home and cooking my dinner, I wouldn’t consider texting/ringing them to let them know my expected time of arrival to be such a heavy burden on my shoulders that I needed tracking technology to relieve it. It’s basic courtesy. I don’t think relieving teens of this ‘burden’ is doing them any favours in terms of learning manners and basic consideration for others either. It’s putting the onus on someone else to check what time they’ll be home instead of them having the decency to communicate. But then, I don’t want or need a cup of tea ready for me the minute I arrive home either.

So even though it had been researched, and the point is made that it normalises a person being constantly tracked ‘because I love you’, you can’t see any correlation to that and accepting it off a boyfriend at 13/14?

I find it's a difficult but essential process gradually giving more freedom. My 10 year old had been on short walks, been to the shop, caught a bus, been to camp. I feel if I'd tracked her I wouldn't be learning to let go and relax about her freedom and she wouldn't feel as trusted and as proud of her new achievements. She'll be building up to more freedom gradually and I'll learn to worry a bit less as we go. The greatest risk she'll be in will be once she's 18 and going out at night with friends or travelling alone and I just don't feel it would be right to track her. I wouldn't want to be tracked.

If your relaxing and learning to let her go goes according to plan she’ll be going out and travelling alone way before she’s18.

Bur you literally have a phone, you could call or text them. Nobody can get lost in the UK, it's not the Amazon. You aren't going to get abandoned at some random concert now are you.

A quick call or text . .

"Where are you"

"I'm standing at the back, by the bass bins, see you in a minute"

No tracking necessary.

Or is actually opening your mouth to speak into your phone just too much work . .

Do you not like talking to them?

Why can't you just phone them and ask?

Same here. This feels unhealthy to me.

What a ridiculous question!

I don’t call them because they’re generally busy at a match or tied up in a meeting or similar which is why they’ve not called me in the first place.

But they can call you or send you a message when they know their arrival time...

Thats what DH and my kids do. DH will let me know when he's train is half an hour away if he needs picking up. DDs send me coach updates.

However I've been reflecting today Nd worked why I'm so anti tracking. I know how obsessed my over protective mother would have been with it! Even now if she found out, and I'm nearly 40.

they could. My dc prefer not to have to. Dh will call as he prefers that.

they don’t have anything in the way of curfews and no restriction on what they do, where they go or who they see. As they’re adults/nearly adult.

their choice is to not have to be calling mum whenever they change plans. They know I can check their location and know they are safe.

their choice. I think it makes them feel more in control of their decisions not having to check in, and they also know if they did get in trouble I know where they are.

How does tracking someone make sure they are safe?

I was super anxious so I would have loved it. I was always scared I’d get lost.

but yes - agree some important info is missing from the post. How old are the children, what devices do they have, etc.

my daughter is 12 so I can see where her phone is and my son is 8 and has a kids smart watch thing with (crap) tracking. I didn’t get them either specifically for the tracking, but wanted them to be able to call us.

Absolutely!

I honestly don’t see why some folk are so upset by this. Do what works for your family. We do. It’s different from what others do. So what? The world would be a boring place if we were all the same.

Right.

I got the tracking app life 360 so my then 12 year old daughter could track ME.

she (after going through some extremely traumatic events) became very anxious and hysterical every time I left the house without her, even to walk the dog or go shopping, even when she was left with my responsible adult children. It got so bad I had to cancel doctors appointments and get online shopping as sometimes she didn’t want to leave the house to come with me.

so I downloaded life 360 and very slowly she started to let me walk the dog or pop to the shop without her as she could see where I was.

now 2 years later she’s fine, we still have life 360, she travels to other villages to see her friends and I go out too, I don’t stalk her nor do I demand to know why she’s at a particular place. O only check it to see where I need to pick her up from.

ds 25 added himself to our family group too which I thought was funny but he’s not bothered and to be honest he rarely checks it, and I don’t give a stuff what he’s up too.

the only issue I have is with dd2 18. She stalks me and her brother all the time on it demanding to know where we are or what we’re doing at a certain place. I do feel my privacy has been invaded sometimes, if I turn my location off she instantly knows which baffles me. I don’t mind my kids knowing where I am but I don’t want to be interrogated about it.

so it can be a very useful tool if used properly but I can see why it can be a way of controlling people

Agree with this - recording & tracking of young people has become the norm. I think it’s weird & I’m glad I grew up in the 80s.

Just don’t? Just ask them where they are ask them to check in and trust them. It builds a much better relationship than tracking. Mine are 21 & 18 and I’m yet to loose them!!

Would you really have loved it, though? Even as a teenager?

Well it would have saved me a couple of times but I wouldn't track my teenage children without their knowledge, that's super intrusive.

My 12 year old is autistic and has asked me to track her - my 8 year old is just exploring the world and starting to walk the mile to school by himself. I don't sit there watching them, it's more just a quick check that everything is as it should be as they learn to navigate the world. I am sure I'll be done tracking my son by high school but my daughter needs more support for now.

That's why I asked about the children's ages and what they think about it all.

My husband and I don't track each other - though honestly sometimes it would be super useful!

Yes this is a really good article. Tracking people 24/7 shouldn’t become the norm. It’s going to cause huge problems in potentially abusive relationships.

We are in a small rural village in north Scotland so never really needed to think about this as DC was growing up, but once they all started to hit 17 and started driving on country roads, we asked him about getting Life 360 on his phone just in case of an accident so we could find him/send help to the right place etc. He was absolutely fine with this and saw the sense in it.

Its been brilliant and now he’s at Uni we don’t “track” him but is very useful for things like seeing where his bus is for us to drive in for pickup from the local town when he’s coming home - and he’s sleeping on the long bus journey and not replying to texts

It’s also great for when DH is working in remote places and I can see where he is, when he’s on his way home etc.

It’s very reliable and pretty accurate.

Exactly. Anything can still happen, all the tracker does is let you know where it's happening.

I get it - my DS is going abroad on a school trip and still only young and the school actually hinted that Airtags are good but I have an Iphone but he has a Samsung so slowing reading all these threads as trying to work out what would be the best route to go - obviously trust the school but why not have something that keeps your mind at rest x