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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Why arent we all tagging our kids?

227 replies

COL1N · 18/02/2022 19:10

Just reading up on buying an airtag as always losing stuff & started thought process of getting one to sew into DDs coat. She is only 2 so not a privacy/ stalking type issue I dont think- just if the worst happened and she was snatched or lost I could find her easily. Why doesn't everyone just do this as standard?!

OP posts:
karmakameleon · 18/02/2022 19:40

We’ve never had to actually use it for real but it does give us peace of mind. For example, when we took them to a bonfire night display, it was dark and crowded so we knew if any of them let go of a hand and got lost, we’d find them again in seconds.

karmakameleon · 18/02/2022 19:41

The children also know that their coats are tagged so not to take them off it they get lost.

Gizacluethen · 18/02/2022 19:41

I've heard the best thing to do is start shouting/telling people that she's lost and what she looks like. What you want is lots of people looking for her and people tend to only do that when pretty much instructed.

GirlInACountrySong · 18/02/2022 19:41

@COL1N

I dont know! She is never out of my sight but these things happen.
this is depressing

just keep a close eye on your kid

OmgIThinkILikeYou · 18/02/2022 19:43

This is why I have reigns

karmakameleon · 18/02/2022 19:44

I got lost as a child by the way and know it was scary for my parents. From my child’s perspective it was fine. I found a member of staff and was taken to the first aid centre and my parents tracked down but I know they were terrified.

SlapBet · 18/02/2022 19:44

Anyone seen Black Mirror Arkangel…

AchillesPoirot · 18/02/2022 19:44

And my ex would just have said he forgot to take it out of their coat and used it to track me.

AchillesPoirot · 18/02/2022 19:44

What age would you stop?

caprimoon · 18/02/2022 19:45

I didn't realise people felt so strongly about this.

I was thinking I might get one to put in DDs school bag when she is allowed to walk home from school independently in year 4 (8/9 years old) won't have a mobile at that age and I wouldn't panic when she spends hours talking to her mates or whatever rather than coming straight home.

Is this an invasion of privacy even thought she'd know about it?

Before she was at school she had a bracelet with my mobile number on in case she wandered off at farm parks etc (more likely I feel than abduction).

karmakameleon · 18/02/2022 19:46

@AchillesPoirot

And my ex would just have said he forgot to take it out of their coat and used it to track me.
Apple devices warn you about trackers. So whenever I take the kids anywhere my phone alerts me to the fact that someone might be tracking me (i.e. the children’s tracking devices have been with me all day)
astoundedgoat · 18/02/2022 19:46

Well logically, unless you have concerns, your child isn't going to be snatched. Children are almost ALWAYS snatched by somebody they know (i.e. their fathers etc.), so microchipping your child, while it sounds fantastic in principle, is probably OTT in real life.

That having been said, I have given my older daughter WAAAAY more freedom to roam with her friends precisely because I can track her. So at 12 I let the two of them go off to a very big (safe!) park about a 25 minute walk from here to play and climb trees, via a cafe for sustenance, for HOURS because in a way, she was never out of my sight. She knows this and is perfectly relaxed about it. It wouldn't enter her head (yet!!) to object.

springisaroundthecorner · 18/02/2022 19:47

Is this something that's also made for Android ?

Bitofachinwag · 18/02/2022 19:49

@astoundedgoat

Well logically, unless you have concerns, your child isn't going to be snatched. Children are almost ALWAYS snatched by somebody they know (i.e. their fathers etc.), so microchipping your child, while it sounds fantastic in principle, is probably OTT in real life.

That having been said, I have given my older daughter WAAAAY more freedom to roam with her friends precisely because I can track her. So at 12 I let the two of them go off to a very big (safe!) park about a 25 minute walk from here to play and climb trees, via a cafe for sustenance, for HOURS because in a way, she was never out of my sight. She knows this and is perfectly relaxed about it. It wouldn't enter her head (yet!!) to object.

Unless she loses her phone.
breadedchicken · 18/02/2022 19:50

I did this when we were on holidays with my flight risk 5 year old. He did run off at speed several times but we caught him. The tag was for backup. He was more predictable on home turf and has since grown out of the running away. I see nothing wrong with it.

Original poster
COL1N · 18/02/2022 19:51

My daughter is a runner too, it just feels like an extra layer of security.

OP posts:
AchillesPoirot · 18/02/2022 19:53

Your daughter is a toddler. Why can’t you just watch her?

Echobelly · 18/02/2022 19:53

People don't do it as it's a messed up way of looking at kids and your relationship with them. In the massively unlikely event of an abduction it won't help and it just creates an unhealthy dynamic where either parent, child, or both gets used to being kept track of constantly.

Cherryana · 18/02/2022 19:55

I was snatched on a beach.

My husbands cousin was snatched in a shopping centre.

Happily for both of us it had a happy ending and was resolved quickly.

But it does happen.

TheOriginalEmu · 18/02/2022 19:56

@peboh

Unfortunately children that go missing at the age of your daughter, go missing because parents aren't giving them the appropriate supervision.
Nonsense. When my daughter was 18 months old we were in a hospital waiting room, me, her and her then 6 week old brother. There was a corridor with no one else at that end with a door. I watched her walk to the door and open it and in the time it took me to stand up and get to her. Probably about 5 seconds at most, she was gone. She had gone through another open door and we found her in minutes but they were the scariest couple of minutes of my life. I was literally looking at her and she was gone.
RoseRedRoseBlue · 18/02/2022 19:56

This is completely over the top

peboh · 18/02/2022 19:56

@COL1N

My daughter is a runner too, it just feels like an extra layer of security.
So is mine. She's 3 (asd), and given the chance she would run away from me in a second. She would also leave with strangers, run headfirst into a busy road, throw herself down the stairs as she has no safety awareness. Therefore it is on me as her parent to watch her closely. We have reins for when we go outside, she doesn't leave my side for a second. We play on the park and I am with her constantly. She doesn't get the chance to run unless it's in a safe controlled environment. Tagging her wouldn't make a difference, because I don't give her the opportunity.
BeingATwatItsABingThing · 18/02/2022 19:56

This is why I have zero issues with using reins for my DD. She can’t run away if she’s attached to one of us.

Helenluvsrob · 18/02/2022 19:58

Remember a tag needs phone users to bounce off assuming it’s not immediately discarded.

AchillesPoirot · 18/02/2022 19:59

@BeingATwatItsABingThing

This is why I have zero issues with using reins for my DD. She can’t run away if she’s attached to one of us.
I used reins for DD1 because she was a bolter.
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