If your elementary kid walks to/from school without you, do they have a smart watch?

[Anonymous]

I think people who don’t provide something like this to a kid are neglectful. You never know what can happen and this small tool can help in an emergency. I don’t like the idea of having to rely on strangers/bystanders when there’s a perfectly simple way the kid can reach you if there’s an issue.

[Anonymous]

No. School is a few blocks away. I don’t feel this requires a smartwatch. I don’t foresee any reason they would need to call or text me on the way to school.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the distance, traffic, and neighborhood character, if a lot of other kids are out walking at the same time. You should look up registered sex offenders to see if your child's walking route would pass by the home of one. Although many people let their kids walk to school by themselves without a comm device, it's really a personal decision based on your unique set of factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think people who don’t provide something like this to a kid are neglectful. You never know what can happen and this small tool can help in an emergency. I don’t like the idea of having to rely on strangers/bystanders when there’s a perfectly simple way the kid can reach you if there’s an issue.

Kids don’t need to reach the parents every second of every day,

[Anonymous]

No, my kid doesn’t have a watch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is our plan, so that we can track our kid's location and they could text us if there was any problem. I'm assuming this is what everyone does? Just curious how other people handle this transition.

I walked to school every day in 4th-6th grade. I didn’t have a smart watch, although once for my birthday I got a calculator watch and that was totally badass.

In any case, I’m still here.

What, exactly, do you think is going to happen if they walk to school without a smart watch?

[Anonymous]

My kid had a gizmo in elementary school. The gizmos do nothing but allow them to call a parent and you can see their location. She was the last of her friends to have one. We got her one summer before 5th grade and it allowed us to send her to the neighborhood pool independently or out to roam around with friends independently. Prior to that when she was just walking back and forth to her bus stop, she didn't have anything for 2 years of independent walking to bus stop.

We got a smart watch for middle school. My kid is a walker (just under a mile walk) and this allows communication with friends before and after school and with us. There is not too much to do on the watch that they don't get bored with pretty quickly, in my experience. Ours forgets to have hers on most of the time and really only wears it for the walk to and from school. It's on school mode during the day.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we got a smart watch for our daughter in 4th grade. I’m sure she would be fine without it, but I don’t see much downside. Sometimes she will call and ask to stop at a friend’s house after school, or if it’s pouring or freezing and I have time, I’ll text her that I’ll come pick her up. She tripped and fell once and skinned her knee and I was able to walk to meet her to help her carry her book bag home. Not a huge deal, but I was glad she could contact me. She never uses it at school and it only cost a few bucks to add to our phone plan. More than worth it for my peace of mind.

[Anonymous]

5th grade—no watch, kid walks 0.5 to/from. One major road crossing with a crossing guard, rest is neighborhood.

Next year for middle school we will do a watch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think people who don’t provide something like this to a kid are neglectful. You never know what can happen and this small tool can help in an emergency. I don’t like the idea of having to rely on strangers/bystanders when there’s a perfectly simple way the kid can reach you if there’s an issue.

You’ll be busy making calls to CPS nonstop if you are classifying this as “neglect.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Smart watches are banned from my school (LCPS). And I hear they'll be banned from neighboring districts shortly.

We have a very short walk, but I just trust that everything will be okay. I really think that giving small amounts of healthy freedom and trust to kids is what's going to help them in the long run. School would contact me within 30 min if my kids didn't show. And to play devils advocate- what happens if they are kidnapped? The watch would be turned off immediately and it would give you no information, which is just what you'd get if you didn't have it in the first place.

I think smart watches and phones for kids are unhealthy

I have a 7th grader and the rule is that a smart watch is okay during the school day if it is locked down. Hers is in Schooltime between 5 minutes after school starts up until 5 minutes before school ends. Those 5 minutes are in case something happens on the bus, or she decides to stay after school but forgot to tell me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine does. She walks about a half mile to and from her bus stop and crosses a major road without a crossing guard.

She has used it for bus delays so I'm not wondering why she hasn't gotten home yet.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is our plan, so that we can track our kid's location and they could text us if there was any problem. I'm assuming this is what everyone does? Just curious how other people handle this transition.

I walked to school every day in 4th-6th grade. I didn’t have a smart watch, although once for my birthday I got a calculator watch and that was totally badass.

In any case, I’m still here.

What, exactly, do you think is going to happen if they walk to school without a smart watch?

OP here. I walked to school alone starting in 1st grade and didn't have a phone or anything (80s/90s). I was also a latchkey kid.

But back then pay phones were more readily available, and it would have been fine for me to go into a store and ask to use the phone to call my parents if I needed to. That's not true now. Also I actually think it might have been good for me if I'd had a bit more accountability/connectivity back then. Sure, I became very independent very early. But I also learned the lesson that my parents weren't really a resource for me when I struggled, which I think was kind of dysfunctional.

I also view the watch as something that could help create more independence. Eventually she could text me and maybe meet me somewhere other than home, since I work in the neighborhood. Or she could use it to see if she could go to a friend's house after school instead of home, that kind of thing.

I don't get what the problem is, other than wanting to limit tech for kids, which I agree with. But the gizmo watches are really basic and you can limit who kids can text on them and monitor everything really easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we got a smart watch for our daughter in 4th grade. I’m sure she would be fine without it, but I don’t see much downside. Sometimes she will call and ask to stop at a friend’s house after school, or if it’s pouring or freezing and I have time, I’ll text her that I’ll come pick her up. She tripped and fell once and skinned her knee and I was able to walk to meet her to help her carry her book bag home. Not a huge deal, but I was glad she could contact me. She never uses it at school and it only cost a few bucks to add to our phone plan. More than worth it for my peace of mind.

OP here, this is what I'm envisioning. Most days not really needed but useful to have. As I mentioned in my last post, when I was a kid there were more ways to get in touch with my parents during the day if I really needed to but that aren't available now, including pay phones (I always had change for a pay phone in the bottom of my backpack).

[Anonymous]

Do mcps ES allow kids to wear smart watch or gizmo? If I give my kid a phone, he may lose it. But I dont think he likes to wear watch. Any other ways?