Parenting | Parent Spy

Technology Out Wits Sneaky Kids, or Does It?

These days there is plenty of technology to track kids. It would seem that it would be very easy to keep track of sneaky kids who might be looking to get into some mischief. The question is whether this technology works or not. On many leves it definitely works, but in more ways than one, it may not be such a good idea. As a parent, you have to figure all of that out.

The Pros of Technology Tracking Kids

The pros are as old as parenthood. Parents want to know where their kids are and that they’re safe. Therefore, GPS tracking on cell phones works good when the phone is on and the device has a clear shot at the sky. If a kid is supposed to keep the phone on, and it gets turned off, it’s going to be tough to explain that to Mom.

As for software that tracks computer use, the many incidents involving molesters and bullying are the best reason to do this. The Internet is a dangerous place. Parents can even tell the kids they’re tracking computer usage.

The Cons of Tracking Kids with Technology

The biggest hurdle to jump is “trust.” You have to find the balance between spying and caring. Your kid won’t grow up responsibly if he isn’t give the chance to try. Again, make sure he knows it’s for his safety.

Where GPS tracking is concerned, there are still some problems with accuracy. That could scare a parent and get a kid in unfair trouble. The old fashioned phone call to check in is still the best tracking tool for kids.

Filed Under: Parenting, Technology Tagged With: Mobile phone, Technology, Vehicle tracking system

The Necessity of Protection

Image by fionnaigh via Flickr

Boundaries are meant to be challenged. This is the philosophy of the modern parent, the certainty gained from endless experts and their opinions (offered with loud frequency). Children are meant to shove at limitations. They’re meant to push at the rules until they discover any weaknesses. Independence is the intention — and many mothers now find themselves offering freedom in all elements of life, allowing their family to explore the days without restrictions.

You, however, are not so sure of this.

And you would be correct.

It can’t be denied that children must be offered the chance to define themselves. It can also not be denied, however, that such definitions require care. Youths are impulsive. They will do what they please without acknowledging the potential dangers, the obvious consequences. Behavior adults deem reckless will instead be considered easy. It’s imperative therefore that all parents — including you — recognize the need for protective measures: such as technological tracking.

Too often is this a source of controversy. Mothers think that it represents a lack of trust, are certain it will only spark discontent among their families. The truth, however, is that tracking devices (found in smartphones, computers and more) offer security. They enable parents to note all movements, to register any problems. This is vital. In an age where statistics favor tragedy children must be protected — and this is the way to do that.

It must be understood that youths will battle this idea. They’ll assume it to be an invasion of privacy. What parents must stress, however, is that privacy is a privilege but safety is a requirement.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: Family, Parent, Privacy law

Self Defense Techniques- Key To Protection

It is important that one is capable of protecting themselves in case of danger. In today’s world the crime rates are on all time high, people are being mugged in streets and there are street fights for minor reasons. Knowing self defense techniques is the best way of handling such situations. Self defense techniques are the best method of protecting our self and our family in times of distress.

Self defense techniques are basically martial arts. There are various institutions that teach you how to defend yourself when you are attacked. Kung-fu, Karate, Kick boxing, Tai-chi etc are various types of self defense arts. Self defense arts give you the confidence about yourself. It allows you to be flexible and healthy. Research has shown that self defense techniques are also an excellent form of exercise. Practicing self defense techniques regularly, keeps a person’s body fit. That’s not all it also increases one’s self confidence because they know that they are in control of the situation and they will not panic. People who practice defense fighting are more calm and are capable of taking calculated risks.

Learning self defense is a resolve. It allows you to improve your basic fighting instincts. There are several institutions’ that offer short term courses, inter-mediate courses and long term courses in self defense techniques. Each advanced stage in the self defense art is marked by color of the participant’s belt. The beginners wear a white belt and move on to yellow and then red, brown, blue and finally the black belt. Black belt has various degrees that can be earned by passing self defense examinations. It is important that we learn self defense arts.

Filed Under: Parenting, Security Tagged With: Karate, Martial arts, Sport

Hints Of Being In Crowd And Tips To Safeguard Yourself

Traveling is an inevitable part of our daily life. We need to commute in buses and tubes everyday to our offices, schools or any other places. It is very natural for mother’s to be super protective about their kids especially when they traveling in crowded buses or trains. It is important that you pick up the hints of being in a crowded place and react accordingly.

If you are traveling with a kid who is below 4 years of age, the best bet is to pick it up in your arms while traveling. This will ensure that your kid does not feel suffocated and gets fresh air. If you leave your kid on the ground, there are chances of it being pushed around or being bruised. If you are traveling with kids between the age group of 5-9 years, it is best to hold their hands or have a monitored leash around them. This will prevent them from being carried away in the crowd. This is also a preventive measure to avoid your child being lost in the crowd.

Do not let your child wander alone in crowded places. Ensure that you a leave your complete address and emergency contact numbers in a chit that is placed in your kid’s pocket. This helps in retrieving your kid easily. If you are traveling with a kid who falls in the age group of 10-12 years then make then stand ahead of you in crowd so that they are protected and you can have a close watch on them. It is good idea to pin them up against the wall and shield them so that they are not lost.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: Demographic profile, Metro Transit, Travel

Tracking Your Kid’s Social Life

World has become a smaller place. The internet boom has caused people to come together. It has allowed people of various backgrounds to interact with each other just by clicking a button. As Parent’s it is important that you know what are your kid’s texting habits, who are his friends in the physical world and the virtual world? How is he interacting with various people? It might sound like an intrusion of personal space but it is very important to look out for all these habits of your kid or your teenager. There are numerous instances in the past, where the kids and teenagers have been lured into scandals and have been exploited by complete strangers.

It is important that you protect your kids and teenagers from such people. However you need to so it tactfully, most importantly because your kids are going through a very fragile transition phase in their life and last thing that you want is a cold war between you and your teenager. Many parents add their kids on social networking profiles, so that they are aware about their kid’s friends and his interactions. If they find anything objectionable, they talk to their kid and sort it out or ask the kid to take off the particular person off their friends’ network. Similarly, many parents keep a tab on the browsing history of their kid by using a spyware. Some parents prefer their children using a desktop instead of a laptop. Many parents insist on computer being placed in the living room so that the kid does not indulge in anything that is objectionable. It is always a good idea to know your kid’s friends personally.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: Adolescence, Family, Parent

Importance Of Keeping A Track Of Your Child

News papers and news channels carry reports of abduction, rape, murder etc on everyday basis. The growing crime rate has made it very important for parents to keep a track of their child. No one wants their child to be abducted by some stranger for money. Parents train their children in order to avoid such mishaps. Children are taught not to accept any eatables from strangers or not to give any information to strangers. Many parents instruct their kids to steer clear of strangers totally.

These are some preventive measures for the older kids, however how would one track their kid in a mall when they are busy shopping? Companies have come up with different solutions for this. The simplest solution to keep a track of your toddlers from running away is the leash. A leash has a small opening that needs to be worn around the mother’s wrist and the other end is tied around the kid’s waist. Your toddler can roam around freely up to a specific distance that is set on the leash, after that it just feels tugged if it tries to cross the specified boundary.

Another solution offered by the manufacturers is the tracking bad. This band needs to be worn by the kid around his wrist. This band works on the GPS navigation technology. Parents can track the real-time location of their kid. This is especially important for youngsters because they tend to evade the restrictions and venture out to forbidden places. This is an ideal way of checking if the information relayed by your kid is correct or not. However many kids would take off the bands or switch off the system and make it impossible to track them, now this GPS navigation facility is available in cell phones. You can track your kid’s whereabouts through the hidden application in their cell phone.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: Child, Mobile phone, Parent

Being A Mommy

There goes a saying that decision of being a Mommy is a decision of life time. It is a decision to let your heart walk out of your body and run on the streets. Being a mother is not easy. Many mothers would agree to fact that it is a full time job, with no remuneration, no leaves and no retirement. Mothers are angels. They look after their kids. The bond between the mother and the child is so strong that a mother always understands what is going on in her child’s mind?

The first word that the kid learns to utter is mom or mommy. When we are hurt or we falter while walking, the first thing we do is we remember our moms. Mothers are wonderful creations of God. Being a mother includes various responsibilities. It includes teaching you to take the first step in life. It involves teaching you to differentiate right from wrong and good from bad. It involves, developing the child into a responsible citizen and a matured adult. They that mother’s are the most influential factors of a person’s life. Look at all the great men in history; the driving force behind their success was their mother. Being a mother means setting an example for your kid. A mother never holds a grudge; a mother is always forgiving and caring. However the same loving and caring mother can turn into a tigress to protect her child. She will always be there to shield her little one from all the troubles in the world.

A mother is a teacher and a guide. She will always show the righteous path to her child. She will pamper him but at the same time be stern enough to correct your wrong doings. Being a mommy isn’t an easy task. It’s a life time commitment to care for your child without expecting any reward.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: Family, Mother, Parent

Strollers are Great for Safety

Image via Wikipedia

When my children were babies, I thought always having to drag a stroller around with us was a hassle. It took up half the space in the car’s trunk, was awkward to put in and take out, and made it harder to get through the aisles in the stores. If it wasn’t for the little detail of having to carry the kids and their diaper bags through the mall, I think I would have gladly foregone the stroller.

That was then; I’ve gained a little wisdom since those days. One of the things I’ve discovered that a stroller is great for is protecting my children. All right, they’re too big to get in a stroller now, but they’re still great for protecting my grandchildren. Children in strollers aren’t running around the store getting lost. Not only that, they typically can’t grab any merchandise and bring it crashing to the ground. At the same time, I don’t have to watch to make sure that nobody steps on my child when they are in a stroller.

Actually, a stroller makes a pretty good all-around child protections system for taking your children out in public. In a sense, it works like a combination shell to protect them from things hitting them, and a (dare I use the word) cage, to keep them from getting to things. They can sit, strapped into their stroller, looking at the world around them, playing with a few small, attached toys, and even drink a bottle.

As a parent, okay grandparent, I have found that I can feel more secure, knowing that my child is protected wherever I go. Now, that doesn’t mean I can walk off and leave them in the stroller, I obviously have to bring the stroller and the child it contains with me, wherever I go. But, you know, the hassle is actually worth it.

Filed Under: Parenting, Security Tagged With: Baby transport, Child, Shopping

Does Your Child Need a Cell Phone?

Have you noticed how cell phones have become one of the modern status symbols? The fancier the phone, with more apps, whistles and bells, means the owner must be more important as well. Not only is this happening with us as adults, but with our kids as well. It seems like every month the average age for having a cell phone drops.

Many parents try and put off buying their child a cell phone for as long as possible. Understandably, they don’t want their children spending the whole day texting their friends, instead of doing their schoolwork. They want to, and should, control their children’s access to the telephone; who they call, how much they talk, and when they talk as well.

With some of the phones designed especially for kids, parents can let their children have a phone, and control how it’s used as well. The control comes in the form of programming the numbers that the child can speed-dial. If the parent doesn’t program the number in, the child can’t call them. On the other hand, they can call the people who the parents want to allow them access to call; people such as grandparents, teachers, siblings and most important the parents themselves.

This can be a great aid when going shopping with your kids. Typically, it’s almost impossible to keep a family together in the mall, or even a large department store. Your kids don’t want to stay there with you, while you’re trying on shoes.

Okay, so if they go running off in the mall, how do you find them again? Simple, call them on their cell phone. I’m not saying you should get them a cell phone for them, but for your convenience. It gives you are ready, easy way of maintaining contact with your children, and making sure that they aren’t getting in trouble.

Filed Under: Parenting, Security Tagged With: Child, Mobile phone, Parent

Your Child’s Dog & Bodyguard

I don’t know about you, but I think society has gotten to the point where it seems as if every child needs a personal bodyguard. While I’m sure there are a few multi-millionaires out there who gladly pay the price for someone to guard their children, I’m also sure that you can I can’t afford that luxury. We need an affordable option in child protection.

Actually, in many cases, we have that affordable option right there in our homes and don’t even realize it. Dogs are natural bodyguards; they’re territorial, protective, social creatures, who readily adopt your family as their own. As such, if there is any danger to a member of your family, they are ready and willing to jump into the breach and protect your family.

This is especially true when it comes to the one person who that dog decides is “his person.” If you’ve been around dogs, you’ve seen this; as puppies they pick one person, and that’s the one they connect to. That’s the one they always try and be with, the one they try and play with, and the one they get the most excited to see when that person comes home.

For dogs to be the best possible protectors for our children, each child needs its own dog. That dog should be brought into the home as a puppy, and immediately put together with that child. The child should be the one who feeds it, takes care of it, plays with it, and even sleeps with it. In fact, the more time the child can spend with “their dog” the better, causing the bond between child and dog, which causes that dog to be your child’s bodyguard.

I’m not saying you need a large, mean dog either. While a large dog can do a better job of attacking an assailant, any dog can set up a pretty good alarm. The alarm, more than the attack, can be your child’s protection. People naturally turn to see a barking dog, and that attention is the last thing any assailant wants to have.

Filed Under: Parenting, Security Tagged With: Bodyguard, Child protection, Dog