{"id":387,"date":"2006-09-27T08:23:01","date_gmt":"2006-09-27T13:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forgetful.ca\/?p=382"},"modified":"2006-09-27T08:23:01","modified_gmt":"2006-09-27T13:23:01","slug":"gpsingyour-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/?p=387","title":{"rendered":"GPSing…your kid?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the new and improved leash.\u00a0 For parents who once found it necessary to literally attach their kid to their hip (or wrist) with the velcroed harness<\/a>…some new devices have been developed to enable these overly protective parents to keep their eyes on their slightly older kids.<\/p>\n

Disney mobile<\/a> (is it that surprising that Disney has expanded to the mobile game?) has come up with a device that tracks your kid using their cellphone.\u00a0 They call it the *family locator* (oh good, so you can keep tabs on your spouse too!)\u00a0and it uses GPS technology to keep everyone connected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"cellphne.jpg\"At first glance it seems win\/win.\u00a0 The kid gets a cellphone far earlier than they actually need a cellphone, and the parents get to know exactly where their kid is at all times they are away from them.\u00a0 But is that really what we want?\u00a0 To literally know where our kids\/partner\/family is at all times?\u00a0 What happened to independence?\u00a0 Trust?<\/p>\n

The obvious reason that this phone makes sense is the one no one wants to think about…missing kids.\u00a0 In this instance, it would be amazing to have the technology to track your kid down if they are lost, say at Disneyland, or so much worse, snatched.\u00a0 The push of a button tells you, or the authorities, exactly where your little one is and the GPS phone might actually save a life.\u00a0 That is, if Junior still has the phone on them during the incident….and\u00a0if the\u00a0battery is charged.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude10<\/p>\n

Hopefully no parent has to go through losing their child, and most won’t, so beyond the little used emergency\/safety features of the phone, the other issue is teaching trust and independence to your kids (oh yeah, and coming to the realization that 7 year-olds\u00a0don’t need cellphones!!)\u00a0 My mother was fairly over-protective.\u00a0 And when I say fairly, I mean\u00a0REALLY, REALLY.\u00a0 But even so, she allowed me to push boundaries and make mistakes along the way…sometimes.\u00a0\u00a0Looking back, it seems that the times\u00a0that she was most lenient and trusting were the times I that I didn’t break her trust.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/p>\n

If we try to stay on top of their every move, will it just make the kids more creative at coming up with stories for why they are late or where they were and with who?\u00a0 Kids will be kids, and they need to discover the world on their terms, not when their parents are ready to let go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

GPSing a restaurant is great.\u00a0 GPSing people…I’m not sure I’m cool with that.\u00a0 Not yet, anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s the new and improved leash.\u00a0 For parents who once found it necessary to literally attach their kid to their hip (or wrist) with the velcroed harness…some new devices have been developed to enable these overly protective parents to keep their eyes on their slightly older kids. Disney mobile (is it that surprising that Disney […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[19,41],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}