Why I Gave My Tween a Cell Phone

“Disclosure: As a Brand Ambassador with PTPA and Sygic, I received compensation for my participation. However, all opinions expressed on this blog are my very own.”

How I Knew It Was Time to Get My Tween a Cell Phone

I put off getting any of my kids cell phones for a long, long time. By the time my son was in 5th grade he was one of the only kids that didn't have a cell phone. He wanted one badly, but I just saw no reason why a ten year old needed a cell phone. Then he started Jr. high and he was literally the only kid without a cell phone, but I stood my ground. Why would an 11 year old need a cell phone?

He won the highest award his school gives out. 4.0 gpa plus he exceeded the state math and reading tests via mommytravels

And then it happened.

My husband had been deployed for about two months and I was back here taking care of our three kids. Things were a little crazy during this time. All three kids were on different school schedules, two of them were in gymnastics, one was playing football, and well........ I was over loaded, like most military spouses are during deployments.

I forgot to pick him up from school.

That's right I completely forgot him. I can't remember why he hadn't taken the bus home that day, but he didn't and I was suppose to pick him up. He was waiting with some other kids waiting to be picked up. Thankfully the next to last kid let him use his cell phone to call me. I raced to the school and there he was alone in the dark and the rain and he's only eleven!

I felt absolutely terrible and I realized, he needed a cell phone.

I have to admit getting him a cell phone has been great, but I found out the hard way that we would benefit even more with a tracking app. You may recall I kind of, sort of, basically lost track of him again, and just about lost my mind in the process.

In comes the FREE Family By Sygic an app that lets you share location with your kids and family using the one thing we always carry around – the Smartphone. It keeps you all in touch, lets you see where everybody is in real-time and gives you peace of mind.

Family By Sygic app has made it even easier for our family to stay in touch. Here is a screen shot of Family By Sygic to show you why I love it so much. It's so simple for the kids to use and it teaches them to be responsible and take the extra step to let me know where they are.

Green Check in - button sends a notification with your location to all family members

The red Alert button will notify them that you are in trouble. Alerts include your exact location.

Yellow Messages button sends free messages to all family members. (I'm to cheap to pay for unlimited messaging, so this is a huge bonus!)

Family by Sygic was awarded by the largest parent-testing community Parent Tested Parent Approved.

Related articles

• Keeping Kids Safe in Today's World with Family by Sygic and $100 Amazon GC Giveaway (mommytravels.net)
• 5 Father's Day Gift Ideas

Keeping Kids Safe in Today's World with Family by Sygic and $100 Amazon GC Giveaway

“Disclosure: As a Brand Ambassador with PTPA and Sygic, I received compensation for my participation. However, all opinions expressed on this blog are my very own.”

Keeping your kids safe in today's world is a never ending job and my sponsor, Family by Sygic, is helping parents keep their kids safe with the use of an app. Most tweens and teens have phones and most have phones with access to the Internet. So, it only makes sense to use our phones as part of keeping kids safe.

• Family by Sygic is an app that lets you share location with your kids and family using the one thing we always carry around – the Smartphone. It keeps you all in touch, lets you see where everybody is in real-time and gives you peace of mind.

• Family by Sygic was awarded by the largest parent-testing community Parent Tested Parent Approved.

My tween is starting to do things on his own, like meeting kids at a coffee shop, walking to school, and catching buses to other schools occasionally for sports. I get nervous not knowing exactly where he is at all times, so I got the Family by Sygic app for our phones. With this app I'm teaching him to be safe and responsible.

• Family by Sygic can teach your kids responsibility and self-reliance and give you peace of mind at the same time. You don’t have to keep calling your kids all the time to check on them.  Kids can “check-in” to tell you where they are. The app will send you the parent an “alert” with their exact location.
• The app lets you setup safe and unsafe zones. If your child goes into an unsafe zone you are immediately notified.

The poor children that suffer from having a lunatic mother.

Recently, I became that crazy lunatic mom and it all could have been avoided if I had the Family by Sygic app on our phones. Here's what happened.

I needed to pick up my oldest son, Noah, from track, but I couldn't find my youngest son, Jonah. He was playing in the neighborhood somewhere. (Yes, that's right. I'm the mom that can't find their kid, because I suck at keeping tabs on him. He's the third child and well.......you know how it goes.) I'm yelling his name, asking the other kids if they know where he is and getting very agitated.

I jump in the car with my daughter to drive around to find Jonah, because we are now running very late. I did not stop to grab my cell phone or put on some shoes. (It's the no shoes part that I feel takes me from being that crazy mom to full on lunatic mom.) We find Jonah and immediately drive to the school. At the school there is not a kid in sight. I'm only 15 minutes late and I can't believe there are no kids around. I have to send my daughter who is a 3rd grader into the school to look for Noah, because I have on NO FREAKING SHOES! She returns without him. I proceed to drive a different way home to see if Noah is walking.

We get all the way home without having spotted him. I am now having a heart attack. I run in the house and grab my cell phone. No missed calls, no texts, no anything. While I put on my shoes I call his friend's mother to see if she has him. She does not have him, but wonders why he isn't at the high school. The high school?!?!?! Apparently a bus picked the kids up and took them to the high school to practice, but I didn't know. Nobody bothered to tell me. We jump in the car and go pick him up at the high school where he was waiting with a bunch of other kids, because they had just gotten done. He has no clue at the drama that had just gone on.

It's moments like these that makes it hard to be a military wife 2,000 miles from family, but at least I have an app now that I can track my kids down with! It was easy to teach the kids to use and they understand it's important for them to use it. You can only imagine how much I love Family by Sygic app and not going to crazy town every time I lose a kid.

Giveaway - Family by Sygic has partnered with me to giveaway a $100 giftcard to Amazon.

Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. We hereby release Facebook of any liability. Winner(s) will be contacted by email 48 hours after the giveaway ends. If you have any additional questions - feel free to send us an email!

Other current giveaways

• $50 Gift Card to GetUncommon.com Review and Giveaway (mommytravels.net)