Monitor Kids: Is a Location App Alright?
The salvation comes via tracking app
The alarm clock shows 3:10 clock, and I roll back and forth in bed because my daughter is not home at the agreed time. And already the head cinema starts: Did she perhaps drink too much and does not know how she gets home from the neighborhood? Was she stopped by lousy types? Or maybe you have someone mixed K.-o.-drops into the glass? Oh my God! Fortunately, the redemption comes via smartphone: I turn on the tracking app, ah, there's my daughter, yes, on the way home.
Before everyone comes to me by helicopter right away: I have two teenage daughters and I live in a big city. And to make sure that as they grow up and keep expanding their radius, they make as little nasty experience as possible, so I'm ready to go far.
Also, your dad and I are not secretly following our kids, but with their permission. We do not want to stalk them, and our app must finally be unlocked from their smartphones.
Tracking is totally normal in this generation
I also know that many of my friends do the same. And of course we asked the girls beforehand if they felt that was a propeller-nutmally-controlled way. "No, totally okay," both said, and they're not the only ones.
In general, tracking in their generation is totally normal, the kids are constantly looking at Snapchat, where their friends are. The big one even says it gives her more security.
Am I only nice about my control delusion? Under no circumstance! I only use the app in an emergency. So if the kids are very late. It's only human. It is also humane that one sometimes succumbs to the temptation to look out of pure curiosity, whether they are really there, where they said. But I only happened once. My daughter wanted to make party shopping and move from one friend to the next, so I took a quick look where she was.
Knowing where my daughters are makes me a calmer mother
And yes, that's where the crux lies. Of course, I know that children need to have secrets and also have their own (bad) experiences to prepare for life. I do not want to burden them with my fears, but the fact is that the world out there is not entirely safe for two pretty, inoffensive girls. Therefore, I have no bad conscience that we have such a control thing - as long as we use it responsibly.
Knowing where my daughters are is reassuring and makes me a calmer mother. And sometimes, thanks to the location, I also spared them an embarrassing call from them or their friends. When the big guy was not home for the last time, and without an app I would probably have thought about going to Kiez, the technology saved me from an embarrassing encounter: the smartphone showed me that it was long gone there was. Down in the hall, with a boy.
I am already aware that the location is useless in the worst case. If the children have an accident, they have the with or without app. And if they are kidnapped, then safely without a cell phone. But even then I know more quickly and know at least their last location. At least that gives me the illusion of control.
* Name changed
