Anonymous wrote:Avoid the Pinwheel Watch – Waste of Money

We bought the Pinwheel Watch for our son, and it has been a huge disappointment. From day one, it was never able to successfully place a call on cellular. At best, calls and texts would sporadically go through on Wi-Fi, but reliability was awful whether on Wi-Fi or cellular.

Instead of just returning it, I naively worked with customer service to troubleshoot. Weeks later, after they finally gave up on potential fixes, they told me the return window had closed. Although they initially agreed to accept the return, the process turned into nonstop hassle and excuses until I finally gave up and ate the loss. Their final excuse for refusing a return? Small scratches on the screen that developed after my son wore it for just three days.

The problems don’t stop there. The app and interface are clunky and nowhere near as user-friendly as competitors (we also own the Bark watch, and it’s night-and-day better). Build quality feels cheap, and customer service was consistently unhelpful.

Bottom line: I would strongly recommend avoiding this watch. The Bark watch has been excellent for my younger son (better app, reliable service, great support), and we are replacing this Pinwheel with an Apple Watch for our older son. Don’t make the same mistake we did.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kind of hard to say because it's new. We opted for the Apple Watch. Gizmo is another option but it's got bad reviews. Apple Watch also comes in multiple colors, which is extremely important for a 10 year old! It costs us $20 a month and was $300 for the SE.

Gizmos are horribly glitchy, designed for 6 year olds, and their seemingly fancy charging system does not work consistantly. They have a literal APP preinstalled that makes fart noises amon other sounds. Also, there is a horrible approval process to add peoples numbers, and you cannot text anyone unless they install the gizmohub app, otherwise you are restricted to a calling system that rarely goes through. The bad reviews are justified. It is a gimmicky watch with a terrible clunky design and useless camera.

Weird my kid has had the same gizmo watch for 3 years and it has been great.

Anonymous wrote:We got our 6th grader a basic (non-smart, non-Internet enabled) flip phone when he started middle school. Basically just to be able to text or call us in an emergency or to say he is going to a friend's house versus coming straight home from the bus. He says the texting isn't fun so he doesn't see much point to it, which is music to my ears.

Most of his friends have some kind of watch, either apple or Gizmo; but the tracking seems unreliable and they are not big texters. We seem to be among the minority in that we want to track DS, only to be able to reach him - or have him reach us - if needed, outside the school day. The school has a strict no phones policy and we are in complete agreement with that.

Anonymous wrote:I hate the watches. Kids who have them are constantly interrupted and it’s much harder as an adult to police (notice who has one on) until they are already texting.

I much prefer kids having a phone that they have to put in a bag during activities. It’s less distracting, and isn’t a constant temptation. I also know I’m apparently the odd one out on this opinion. But we’ve had no issue with giving my oldest a phone, and are able to limit her to only messaging, calling and google maps.

Anonymous wrote:We got our 6th grader a basic (non-smart, non-Internet enabled) flip phone when he started middle school. Basically just to be able to text or call us in an emergency or to say he is going to a friend's house versus coming straight home from the bus. He says the texting isn't fun so he doesn't see much point to it, which is music to my ears.

Most of his friends have some kind of watch, either apple or Gizmo; but the tracking seems unreliable and they are not big texters. We seem to be among the minority in that we want to track DS, only to be able to reach him - or have him reach us - if needed, outside the school day. The school has a strict no phones policy and we are in complete agreement with that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the watches. Kids who have them are constantly interrupted and it’s much harder as an adult to police (notice who has one on) until they are already texting.

I much prefer kids having a phone that they have to put in a bag during activities. It’s less distracting, and isn’t a constant temptation. I also know I’m apparently the odd one out on this opinion. But we’ve had no issue with giving my oldest a phone, and are able to limit her to only messaging, calling and google maps.

We think giving phones and Apple Watches to elementary school students is insane. You're just going to destroy their attention spans, and for what? Chances are, they will never ever need to call you in an emergency. If you feel compelled to track them, put an AirTag in their bag.

Good for you and your kids. But having the ability to easily text my kid, not just track them, has given them independence and me peace of mind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the watches. Kids who have them are constantly interrupted and it’s much harder as an adult to police (notice who has one on) until they are already texting.

I much prefer kids having a phone that they have to put in a bag during activities. It’s less distracting, and isn’t a constant temptation. I also know I’m apparently the odd one out on this opinion. But we’ve had no issue with giving my oldest a phone, and are able to limit her to only messaging, calling and google maps.

We think giving phones and Apple Watches to elementary school students is insane. You're just going to destroy their attention spans, and for what? Chances are, they will never ever need to call you in an emergency. If you feel compelled to track them, put an AirTag in their bag.