slo’s WEDNESDAY 3/6 poll - Phone Tracking 📲

[CdnCarrie]

How ironic when people say they would not like it but are always with their spouse. LOL.

It's a great safety feature for if I'm out on icy roads WITHOUT my spouse and something happens. Or for my newly licensed teen.

 

[Brian Noble]

I'm generally not a fan of tracking people. I do track some things, which helps me find my keys. This was a point of some contention, as I preferred we not track our children when they were teenagers, even though we eventually did. My reasoning: it is their job to become somewhat independent of us. If they really wanted to, they could spoof a location by leaving their phone behind in the place they were "supposed to be" while they went where they wanted to go. In the *vast* majority of cases when they needed help, they'd be able to text or call. Without their phone, they can't even do that.

 

[MamaMermaid]

It gives me peace of mind - I follow my mom and husband. They follow me. When it's time, we will follow my son.

 

[jimmymc]

I don't follow anyone and nobody follows me. Even when I was a teenager with a smartphone, my parents never did any location tracking.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I've been using Life360 for the four of us since 2017. In more recent years, we have added the use of FindMy for the three of us who use Apple products (DH is an Android faithful kind of guy).

We moved in 2017 to a neighborhood that had an elementary school and a middle school in biking range. I was going into the office 3 days a week at this point and had some peak periods where I was in office every day (DH was also in office every day). On top of that, the middle schools and high schools in this new district have late arrival on most Thursdays, so there was no way I could be home every Thursday to monitor that. So, I was relying on technology to confirm that my kids were making it to and from school safely. The camera's on the house would capture their departures and arrivals (including whether or not they remembered to lock the door), the app would show me them moving between point A and point B, and then the app would confirm their arrival at either school or home. It gave me so much peace of mind!

We later used the app to track down a lost phone. Since then, we enabled the "FindMy" feature on the Apple products so that we get the added benefit of the audio alert that comes with this feature. I don't like FindMy as much for person tracking as it doesn't seem to move and update as quickly as Life360, but it's still great for lost devices, alerting a kid that's not responding to calls or texts, and following things like AirTags.

These days, both girls are in high school and it's mainly kids driving, so there are new concerns. I'm tracking everything from the girls' daily to/from school drive to longer drives involving school games and activities...which can be hours away. Most times we're just monitoring to make sure they get where they need to be or to help time up bus arrivals so we can meet them at the school on time (since it can be really late). Sometimes, it's also road trips or general travel. This morning, it was to see how close they were to being late since DD17 took extra long doing her makeup and she loses from her allowance money if she causes DD15 to be marked tardy.

 

[pinkxray]

DD19 and I can track each other. I don't really use it much. I do like having it available. I go for long jogs all over town, different routes most of the time. I like having someone being able to locate me if something where to happen. Same with DD.

Dh used to be included but DD19 was always tracking us. One day we both had the day off. We were in the parking lot of a restaurant and DD texted us asking her to bring her sliders.

 

[GAN]

No one tracks me and I don't track my daughters(26 & 30), but I think it's a great idea. Anything that provides a piece of mind and a degree of safety included is good by me.....

 

[RUDisney]

My Mom follows my BIL, his kids and his mother. They follow her, too.

I don't mind the concept, and I can see the benefits, but my Mom is too attached to tracking everyone's moves and my niece will call to yell at my Mom for going somewhere fun without her. I don't see that as its intended purpose.

Now, it did a good thing when my nephew was in an accident on the highway. It notified all of his trackers of the accident. I can see the benefit of knowing that there is an issue like this, but not to call to complain that Grandma didn't take you to the outlet mall with her.

 

[Disneylover99]

Dh used to be included but DD19 was always tracking us. One day we both had the day off. We were in the parking lot of a restaurant and DD texted us asking her to bring her sliders.

Smart girl.

My husband occasionally notices and calls me if I’m near his favourite pizza place. Lol.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

I don’t follow anyone and no one follows me. I’m not against it, I just don’t know how it works. My daughter and her two college roommates follow each other for safety reasons. I actually wouldn’t mind tracking my two college kids, especially when they’re driving home which is a 4 hour trip.

 

[mumto3girls]

My husband and daughters and I all share our location with each other. The only one not allowed to turn that feature off is youngest DD who is 17. Oldest DD did turn hers off when she turned 18 and it was off for a few years. When she was going to Mexico/Guatamala while she was in college, I asked her to turn it on just for the trip so I could see where she was in the world and she did. She never turned it back off. She’s 23 now and I almost never use it unless she’s traveling or occasionally when she leaves here late at night to go back to her apartment. She has to park and then walk a little way in the city and that makes me nervous.

Mostly I use it for things like dinner. Middle DD’s boyfriend was over one night while I was making dinner. Youngest DD had practice and it was the night we would eat late and I would try to have it ready right as she was walking through the door at around 8 pm. DH was on the couch and periodically would yell—she’s off the highway, she’s coming through the roundabout. The boyfriend was laughing and I told him—see, you guys think we track you to be all up in your business when really we’re just trying to get dinner on the table. I do the same with DH when time is tight.

Mostly DH and I use it on each other to figure out where we misplaced our phones. I just asked DH to see where mine was last week. I also like knowing they can track me if there was an emergency.

I think my girls also share location with different groups of friends/boyfriends. As they get older they may choose to stop sharing with us and that is okay, but I like the idea of them sharing with someone.

And at this point I’d like my dad to share his with me (or one of my sisters). He’s 82 and sometimes he worries me. He had a tracking device on my mom’s car at my suggestion when she was starting her dementia journey so he is familiar with tracking. He probably wouldn’t mind someone knowing where he is, but the conversation about why now might be hard. He needs help with his phone quite a bit and I could just set it up, but I feel like I need to ask him and not just do it.

 

[disneychrista]

Do not track anyone and no one tracks me. Don’t know how to use this feature.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

dh, my boys, and myself are all on Life 360.

 

[design_mom]

Spouse and teen. Rule for kids is until they pay for the phone I get to track.
In reality I only check if out late or if roads are slippery.

Spouse I will on occasion check to see if almost home and I should start dinner. That sort of thing.

Same here. We are all connected but I generally don't "stalk" anyone. My 19-year old is commuting to college this semester, so I will check to make sure she made it to campus if the roads are icy... or I'll look to see if she's on her way home yet. I also agreed that if I am tracking them, I'll make my location visible to them also.

My 23-year-old graduated last spring and is now on his own (has own apartment, pays for own phone), I told him if he didn't want to be tracked anymore, he didn't have to be. And he has left tracking on. It does make me feel better that if, for some reason, I felt like something was wrong, I might at least be able to tell his last known location and know where to start looking for him!

 

[EACarlson]

My kids have their tracking turned on. My wife will share her location when she's travelling. My FIL shared his location with me when my wife and MIL were in Hawaii, he has some health issues so it was in case something happened. I don't make it a habit to stalk anyone but will look occasionally to see how close my wife is to her destination.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I make my kids keep the “share my location” on on their phones but I only use it if I don’t know where they are and they don’t answer my texts or calls. I have an apple and Dh has a Samsung so we couldn’t share locations if we wanted to. I recently found out my kids have my phone set to share my location with them. I would get texts while in line like “if you’re going to Starbucks get me something” or when they were asking where I was so I could take them somewhere id tell them I was on my way home when I really stopped at Target or something and they always knew I was lying and then I realized they’re tracking me lol. I don’t care if they do really, it can be annoying though.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I have enough tabs on family members and vice versa. Don’t need this app or whatever it’s called

 

[jo-jo]

I like it the same as SLO. We are a family of five with all my kids in their early to mid 20’s and follow each other. I also follow my elderly Dad who is 84 and lives alone. We really only use it to see where someone is if we are going to meet up or call or FaceTime.

In today’s crazy world, it also provides a little peace of mind to know that God forbid anything ever happened to someone while driving or traveling alone just knowing their last location could help a lot.

I can't get DH to carry his phone. About 6 months ago, he was outside with rollator on grass. Hit a rut, when over. After 15 mins I went to check on him. Sitting on grass, happy as a clam, but couldn't get up. Wheel broke.

 

[kdonnel]

I only have my immediate family and my in laws in my Find My list.

None of my friends have asked to follow me and I have not asked to follow anyone.

My adult kids can always turn off their location if they want but no one seems to care. I have seen their lists before and they have many, many, many friends in their lists.

My in laws are a little intrusive sometimes in their tracking. They will call or text if you are somewhere or near somewhere out of the ordinary that concerns them.

I also have an Apple AirTag on our luggage and key chains. It has been interesting to track our luggage through the airport.

 

[mamamary]

No. None of us follow each other. Not sure how to even do that.