Life 360 in College

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In our family everyone that has a phone has the free version of Life 360. That includes parents, teens and college students. My kids can see where I am and I can see where they are...if I look. Don't give me a reason to look and I won't. I have enough other things to keep me busy. But we are honest with our kids and they have figured out that having our trust is worth it. Our oldest is a junior in college and goes to school out of state. She has said she likes that we have it. She considers it a safety back up. She checks on us more than we check on her. Typically she checks to see if we are at home or if we are out so she knows if she can call home. I check our 17 year old at night since he works late and closes the building he works at. I'm not going to go to sleep until he is home so I like to know if he has left work yet. My husband and I both have it and our kids have seen that in our marriage we don't have anything to hide from each other. Since we don't have anything to hide then the app is just for safety and continence.

Our reasoning is fairly similar. We have 4 kids in college this year and 3 kids middle and high school. None of our kids in college have removed it (they have the ability to if they want). I know they still use it to check on where their dad or I are, and we know because they told us when they've called from college, "Hey Mom, I know you and Dad are at xxx but I need to know yyy."

It works for our family. If it doesn't work for yours, then that's fine, too. Indeed, if you don't like my explanation and feel you need to make a snarky remark or ask a falsely insincere question, then that says more about you than us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think its really really weird to track family members phones. I don't need to know exacrky where my teens or DH is. How stifling! Wow.

How is it stifling?

The reality is your kid can deactivate it whenever they want.

While I’m not stalking my kid, I do periodically check. It’s become a bit of a family joke. While the rest of our family was finishing dinner, one of my kids said, “Let’s guess where Larlo is right now.” Everyone guessed. Then my kid checked Life360 and chuckled. Apparently he was at a bar—and apparently he had a late night the prior night. We laughed. Nobody called or yelled at him. It’s mostly for periodic entertainment and safety at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the parents using life 360, or tracking their kids in college, how would you have felt when you were in college and your parents were tracking you?

Would you have been ok with that?

As the 9th of 10 kids I would have been excited to find out my kids cared where I was.

[Anonymous]

We don’t use any tracking on our kids. It’s so creepy to stalk your kids. Let them have their own life. It’s no wonder this generation is so stunted in their development.

[Anonymous]

My daughter told me her many of her friends leave their phones at their dorms because their parents track them. Seems like the safety justification backfires because now these kids don’t even have their phones on them in case of an emergency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter told me her many of her friends leave their phones at their dorms because their parents track them. Seems like the safety justification backfires because now these kids don’t even have their phones on them in case of an emergency.

My daughter's friend did that during finals because they were all going to brunch and her parents told her that she needed to stay in the dorm and study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter told me her many of her friends leave their phones at their dorms because their parents track them. Seems like the safety justification backfires because now these kids don’t even have their phones on them in case of an emergency.

+1 this happens ALL the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter told me her many of her friends leave their phones at their dorms because their parents track them. Seems like the safety justification backfires because now these kids don’t even have their phones on them in case of an emergency.

+1 this happens ALL the time.

+2 College prof here and I see the same thing. The parents are usually more controlling with the DDs, so the DDs develop strategies to have normal college fun. Some have burners.

[Anonymous]

Really sick to track college age kids this way. Unbelievable. So how, I survived without my parents knowing where I was at all times. Safety BS reason. It's all about control. Time to let go. Going to confront thieves about stolen backpack? Crazy. Besides risk of getting hurt by thieves, what happens when Father hurts thieves and gets arrested.
Are you going to fill out DC timesheets at work or go to their performance reviews for support?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really sick to track college age kids this way. Unbelievable. So how, I survived without my parents knowing where I was at all times. Safety BS reason. It's all about control. Time to let go. Going to confront thieves about stolen backpack? Crazy. Besides risk of getting hurt by thieves, what happens when Father hurts thieves and gets arrested.
Are you going to fill out DC timesheets at work or go to their performance reviews for support?

Would you like to buy a jump to conclusions mat with your hyperbole you ignorant troll. Can’t stand some families do it differently than you? Why not go whine about it on a free message board. What a sorry life you lead!

[Anonymous]

We've been on Life360 for many years and I'm glad that this has never been an issue with privacy. We all see it as a security and convenience feature. My kids are now 17 and 20 and have never asked to deactivate. I travel overseas frequently and they actually are the ones who check on me. My DS has been so thoughtful about even calling or texting any of us if he sees we are driving.

Lol.. one of my kids texted me.. thought you are at work today. What are you doing at home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've been on Life360 for many years and I'm glad that this has never been an issue with privacy. We all see it as a security and convenience feature. My kids are now 17 and 20 and have never asked to deactivate. I travel overseas frequently and they actually are the ones who check on me. My DS has been so thoughtful about even calling or texting any of us if he sees we are driving.

Lol.. one of my kids texted me.. thought you are at work today. What are you doing at home?

Is that really necessary though, I mean I don’t want my kids worrying About what I’m doing nor do I want to worry about what they are doing. There’s something to be said about having too much information.

[Anonymous]

My ds would never.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've been on Life360 for many years and I'm glad that this has never been an issue with privacy. We all see it as a security and convenience feature. My kids are now 17 and 20 and have never asked to deactivate. I travel overseas frequently and they actually are the ones who check on me. My DS has been so thoughtful about even calling or texting any of us if he sees we are driving.

Lol.. one of my kids texted me.. thought you are at work today. What are you doing at home?

Is that really necessary though, I mean I don’t want my kids worrying About what I’m doing nor do I want to worry about what they are doing. There’s something to be said about having too much information.

It's not like we are checking it all.the.time. It's just when we need to find someone for something- which isn't "too much information"
We share cars in our family so knowing where a car might be is important information.

[Anonymous]

Our agreement is that Find my Friends stays on as long as I am paying the bill.