Alabama's Morning News with JT
Rory O'Neil talking about parents tracking their kids
Well, as we know with cell phones and all the technology we've got, there's great ways to be able to track your kids and see what they're up to all the time. Royal Neil joins us now. I mean, I gotta tell you Roy, the parents these days, I mean, some of them are struggling to just try and stop their, you know, kids from doing everything they're in their business so much. Hey, where are you? Where are you? What's going on? I don't know how old you are, but I remember when I was a kid, it'd be like, see a mom after breakfast. And if I wasn't home by dark, you know, I had trouble. But if I made it home, big deal and have a great day. See you. Actually, our mom had a cowbell. [LAUGHS] I love it. So there were four kids, and then there were neighbors kids. We had 20 kids in the neighborhood all the same age. And when we heard our cowbell, we knew that dinner was ready. It was get your butt back to the house fast. And that was the plan. But it's interesting, though, in that now with all this digital tracking on cell phones, it's one thing when the kids 13, 14, 15. But what happens when they go off to college? You know, we're getting reports of parents are calling their kids saying, hey, Timmy, you know, you're supposed to be in biology class right now. Did you oversleep? You know, I mean, like that kind of creeper parenting is still happening, and the kid's away at college. Yeah. So when do you sort of break that connection? How do you do it? It's a really bit of unsettled family law right now. Yeah, I don't understand. I guess it's because of all the technology we've got with the phones and the ability, like you mentioned, to be able to do this. Is it the right thing to be doing, though? I get it. Are we more scared now that kids are going to be in trouble when they leave the house? Even at eight, nine, and 10, I was out, you know, following the mosquito sprayer guy, running around sucking up deep behind him, you know? And you know, we just had a good time. And it was like riding your, you know, little bicycles with the banana seats and the handlebars up in the air. I mean, we were big wheel people. Yes, because we all had big wheels. But no, go ahead. I say, to your point, though, just a lot more freedom out there. But now we're also talking in time when we were 12 and 13. And, you know, that's a different kind of parenting. It's when they become young adults, I think that's more the question about how much involvement parents should still have. Because now you also have the kids are turning off the tractor, which almost makes you even more scared that they're really doing something improper if they don't want you to be followed. - Right. - First of all, you're turning back on and things like that. - Oh, man, I tell you what, I got a story. I'll tell everybody about it in about 15 minutes or so, Roy. But my daughter was in college one time short story quickly. She had been robbed at a senior trip down to New Orleans. They're in actual hotel room, not nothing dangerous towards her. But some things were stolen from her and her roommate in the hotel. So, you know, I'm calling the hotel and saying, look, don't you have video footage of this? And, you know, what, blah, blah, blah. You know, maybe it was somebody on the trip. And so, I meet the police at the University of Alabama when the buses pull back in and the cops are all, and they want to start searching luggage because there was a number of kids. And my daughter's like, what are the cops doing here? And then Alex, my daughter finds out that I'm the one to call the cops and settle up. And I'm standing across, you know, the parking lot, about 50 yards away, just watching the whole thing unfold. And she's like, oh my gosh, Dad, I can't believe, what are you doing? Tell nobody that you did this. She was so mad at me. All right, Roy, thank you, buddy.