Tracking device for car?

[tarheelmjfan]

Funny how your first post in this thread didn't answer the question asked.
I guess according to you, we can only post if we agree or support the OP, even if we don't "stick to the question asked".


I also like how you also thew in some criticism of your own to some of the posters here. But, hey it wasn't directed to the OP so its all good right?

You're absolutely right. Since I couldn't answer the question, I wouldn't have replied at all, if not to support the OP from all the unsolicited advice. I see no point in talking about how to parent a child in a thread talking about tracking devices. It's funny that people wonder why OPs never return. You don't have to be a genius to figure that one out.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I can't think of a young person I know who would willingly leave their phone behind these days. Heck, they track their friends. My kids follow me, I follow them. Many times I wish my sister had an iPhone so I could see where the she is because she’s ALWAYS late. For the vast majority of us who use Find My Phone/Friends or the like it’s no big thing.

First off---that was specifically in response to the idea of tracking: ie, the kids might well leave the phone where the parents "think" they are (a freind's house for an overnight, for example) while going somewhere they are not allowed---as a way to not be traced going on whatever forbidden outing.

That said, I'm more attached to my phone than my 19 year old, who refuses to remove his from the safe when we go on vacations---he likes to unplug completely. and my 19 year old nephew? Drives his mom NUTS becuase he has no interest at all in a phone. Never has had nor wanted a smart phone. Will carry a flip phone if he is reminmded to, but loses them often. Yes, I know many people (young and old, myself included) who always have that phone with them---but there are those who don'T care for the constant interuption to their thought processes too.

 

[NHdisneylover]

You're absolutely right. Since I couldn't answer the question, I wouldn't have replied at all, if not to support the OP from all the unsolicited advice. I see no point in talking about how to parent a child in a thread talking about tracking devices. It's funny that people wonder why OPs never return. You don't have to be a genius to figure that one out.

Like most threads (and many converstaions) this one has now moved beyond the original topic and the conversation has continued to flow. This is normal. If all that ever happened was people answering the OP and ignoring every other post, the DIS would be a mighty boring place.
we've answered the OP, we've discussed the merits of On Star, we've discussed the pros and cons of tracking kids and how many of us feel about it or have hadnled it in our own lives. Now we are discussing whether having all these other discussions as the thread moves along is apropriate.

 

[LSUmiss]

Well I wouldn’t call it spying since she knows about it. She’s only 14 and was riding with older kids I don’t know, so I don’t consider that being a helicopter parent. And they were going 75 on the freeway when the speed limit is 60. I consider that speeding, as do LE in our area. YMMV.

I’d be more concerned about my DS being in any car or anywhere at that age with ppl I don’t know.

 

[lifesavacation]

I’d be more concerned about my DS being in any car or anywhere at that age with ppl I don’t know.

Definitely.

I called a few of my friends who have kids that age. My good friend knew two of the families from her church. Their boys go to morning seminary together. She said they were “good” kids. And the mom of the driver just happened to work in her husband’s office so she checked in with the mom for us. This was the first and probably last time we’ll allow something like this. She’s a “good” kid too and we want her to stay that way.

 

[CarolAnn856]

You're absolutely right. Since I couldn't answer the question, I wouldn't have replied at all, if not to support the OP from all the unsolicited advice. I see no point in talking about how to parent a child in a thread talking about tracking devices. It's funny that people wonder why OPs never return. You don't have to be a genius to figure that one out.

I totally read that in Emily Gilmore's voice.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I'm done with this thread. You all can continue on with your parenting advice that most people have no interest in hearing. Apparently, you all have never noticed that the same people keep talking back & forth among yourselves, when you start in on the unsolicited parenting advice, yet again.

 

[Wishing on a star]

To the one poster.
The kicker here IMHO, does happen to be the word 'secret'.
IMHO, secretly tracking another person is what would be considered over-the-top.

Even if I had cause to be EXTREMELY concerned about my teen, I would never do this kind of thing secretly. It would be well laid out that I was very concerned and because of that would be keeping my eyes open.

Perhaps the OP is concerned about her child's very life or death well being.
That was not mentioned at all.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Tarheel, You are welcome to make a grand exit.
But, IMHO, when the OP came onto this open chat-board and posted what they had posted, about dealing with their child... Involving such a controversial topic, I am not sure that I would call that 'unsolicited'.
And, yes, discussions like this do evolve and take a life of their own.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Tarheel, You are welcome to make a grand exit.
But, IMHO, when the OP came onto this open chat-board and posted what they had posted, about dealing with their child... Involving such a controversial topic, I am not sure that I would call that 'unsolicited'.
And, yes, discussions like this do evolve and take a life of their own.

I'm not making a grand exit. I just find hashing the same old thing thread after thread a waste of time.

ETA: I said I'm done with the thread, because I'm tired of answering posts individually. That was my way of saying I won't be replying to the last few people who quoted me or any others. I should have been more clear about. I'm simply not going to waste anymore time replying to those who quote me, so there's no need to do that. Why waste time, if we're just going to keep arguing back & forth. I outgrew that nonsense years ago.

 

[sam_gordon]

I'm not making a grand exit. I just find hashing the same old thing thread after thread a waste of time.

We've talked about tracking teens/kids before?

 

[Klayfish]

They got caught at a party though so it didn't really do them alot of good. Turns out when you leave your phone and don't post pics on instagram your friend still does, and your sister sees it and tells your parents LOL

See...technology isn't always a good thing. How many kids today who found themselves in the situation you just described would long for the good ol' days we grew up in? You know...the days when if you were at a house party, all you had to do was be faster than the small town suburban police officer who was busting it...or at least be faster than the guy/girl next to you also trying to flee.

 

[wenrob]

See...technology isn't always a good thing. How many kids today who found themselves in the situation you just described would long for the good ol' days we grew up in? You know...the days when if you were at a house party, all you had to do was be faster than the small town suburban police officer who was busting it...or at least be faster than the guy/girl next to you also trying to flee.

I’ll tell you what, my stepmom seemed to have some sort of internal GPS. She had a knack for finding and busting us when it seemed like there was no possible way she could figure out where we were. She could be quite scary back in the day even though she probably didn’t weigh a buck fifteen soaking wet. No doubt she got friends to roll on us.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

~Would I track without telling? No

~Would I track at all? Don't know don't have kids yet but at this point my stance is it's not my cup of tea

~Would I tell another individual not my child who was driving to do this and that? No. We all learned driving differently. Speeding is speeding for sure but some are taught to go with the flow of traffic (obviously to an extent) for example. I grew up with my dad constantly saying to go 5 under for most circumstances. To this day I tend to stick with the posted speed limit or only go a few over. My husband on the other hand goes the speed limit or 5 over. When we first met I was 19 and he was 18. I cannot for the life of me imagine my mom texting me to tell me to tell him to slow down, pull over and she would come get me or anything in general. My father-in-law routinely goes 10-15 over (though he has a police scanner too). Even if my husband and I had met when we were under 18 neither my mom nor his mom would feel it was their place to impose like that. YMMV. It's no offense to those who would do this but I wouldn't do it and no one else I know would dream of doing that.

FWIW I grew up without cell phones, without tracking devices and only landlines and payphones to communicate to my mom where I was at. Now granted I didn't drive until I was 17 but that's because I didn't have a car, nor had saved enough money for a car. I had gotten my learner's permit at 15 in order to use the ID for a cruise. I did however take a driver's ed course (1 day of in-class training and 3 sessions that were 2 hrs each) which was actually good because I learned how to parallel park which isn't required by my state.

Yes there are tracking devices available both for cars and for cell phones.

OP without further details most posters cannot give complete advice. Certain things may be hard no's but if you want advice to help alleviate your nervousness you'll need to provide more details such as age, any driver's ed classes taken, where the car will be driven (like to school, work or everywhere), etc. If you don't want any advice or differing thoughts on even using tracking devices I would probably stick with just googling tracking devices.

 

[ols386]

If I were going to track one of my kids, back in the day, I would tell them that I was tracking them. Luckily, I never felt like it was ever necessary to do so.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I'm done with this thread. You all can continue on with your parenting advice that most people have no interest in hearing. Apparently, you all have never noticed that the same people keep talking back & forth among yourselves, when you start in on the unsolicited parenting advice, yet again.

I realize you have more or less YAGEd (though are apparently still reading and resonding, just not individually--odd if you find the topic uninteresting at this point, but OK), but I am going to reposnd anyway.
Threads often take turns into areas I lose interest in. And then I quit reading the thread. That's pretty normal. eventually enough people lose interest that the thread dies off and drops off the first few pages never to be seen again (or to show up as a zombie thread half a decade later, you never know!).

I am not sure why you don't simply move on if you've lost interest, rather than lecture and insult others for having a conversation they are interested in.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

One of those "Tile" keychain things should work. Just throw it in the car somewhere and nobody will be any the wiser


We have our phones together so that the "Find my iPhone" app tracks the entire family. My stepchildren know they can and will be tracked at all times. They call it the "Creeper App" because they know they are not going to be able to hide. They really do not like it, but they know it. We cannot hide from each other either, so what's good for the kids is good for the adults. I know that any of them can track me just the same.

From a practical aspect though, the phone tracking is very good because they are really bad about losing their phones and we have to use the app to find them.

 

[Marchand63]

I will actually answer the question. If you don't want to use a phone app, Zoombak. It is a GPS tracker that has a carbina attached so you can hook it under a seat. It costs $99.00 to subscribe and tracks in real time. The charge lasts approx 36-48 hours. You track through their website with 2 minute updates.

Now as far as tracking your kids, mine is 32 so I don't do that. But if I had newly minted teen driver and it is my car, yes, yes I would. Because no teen ever lied to their parents about where they were going. No teen was ever talked into going where they weren't supposed to be by friends And of course the ever popular - My teen would NEVER do that I trust them completely

 

[monorailsilver]

new driver. Nervous Parents. Is there any type of tracker that can be placed in the car without them knowing? I know there are phone apps but I’m looking for something in the car not on the phone. Any suggestions?

I feel like there is but maybe I heard of a tracker years ago. So I am no help.

But I do feel your pain, our oldest just got her license in October so we are still new nervous parents. The first day I let her drive alone she went to a friendship house maybe 2 miles away. DH and I went with our son and younger dd 5 to my sons baseball game about 15 min from our house. I left her the keys to the van and told her to text me when she left our house and again when she got there which she did. We still tracked her on her phone to make sure she made it ok! She texted when she left too. We had her do tht a few times and she still does it on occasion when she leaves work but I think she is so tired that she just wants to drive home.

Even today I did track her phone. She was driving to an after school event because she had to work after. She followed another boy in her class and my dtr does not like 95 (Connecticut) so I was wondering if she was going to take it. I took took her on it a handful of times but spent most of her highway driving on RT 9 (less cars where we are and still 65mph). So I tracked her phone and saw she went from RT 9 to 95 knowing it is not the easiest enterance ramp. But I kept refreshing as I wanted to make sure she didn’t get in an accident.

I can't help with an unknown device. We use Life360 for dd14, which is an app. It gives driving alerts as far as speed, etc. She went to a football game with friends and I saw that they were speeding on the freeway so I called and told her to tell the driver to slow down or pull over and we'd come get her.

My friend uses that on her son. He has has his license for about 7 months. She calls him out on his speeding.

My rule is that if you are under 18, I have you on find my iPhone. I’ve watched ds19 blindly follow GPS and go strange ways. Honestly, I can’t imagine tracking my kids without their knowledge. My kids can follow me, as well, it drives me nuts that they don’t. They call or text me all of the time asking when I’ll be there or if I’m on my way. Just check the app!

My kids are clueless. We often tell our kids to pick their heads up out of their phone and look around, get to know where you are because they have no idea how to get to some palaces we frequent.

 

[because]

We'll just agree to disagree. What I've read is people offering unsolicited parenting advice, with very few actually answering the OPs question. Unfortunately, that's par for the course for the DIS. I can see offering unsolicited advice, if the topic is something that affects the adviser. Don't let your kids climb on tables in restaurants or throw 10 minute tantrums, without removing them for the situation, etc. I just don't understand why people find it okay to offer unsolicited parenting advice on something that doesn't affect them at all. I wonder if the DISers that are always offering unsolicited advice here do the same thing IRL. I'm guessing most don't.

Yet you are offering unsolicited advice on how people should answer posts and actually reprimanding some who don't do it your way. Isn't that the exact same thing?

FTR, I am against spying on your child. I have no problem with trackers if both the parent and child are aware and are ok with it. I would never do it but I also would never judge an agreement between two people. That is their business.