West Michigan's Morning News

Parents Tracking Their Kids

There was a time when a kid could just jump on a bike and spend a whole day away from home exploring. Those days are long gone for many as parents are digitally tracking their kids. NBC News Radio National Correspondent Rory O'Neill joins WMMN to discuss tracking your kids even as they go to college.

Duration:: 2m
Broadcast on:: 24 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

I don't know about you, but I spent a lot of time outside, away from my parents. And I think they loved it. This is West Michigan's morning news. Steve Kelly Schmidy is back with us soon. Brad off today. Rory O'Neill NBC News Radio National Correspondent is here. Welcome, brother. Hey there, Steve. Good morning. So let's talk a little bit about this. You know, it's a great safety feature being able to track your kids via their smartphone. But then there might be a little line we're crossing as parents. Well, yeah, when do you stop? At what point-- you know, it's one thing when they're 12, 13. You're trying to find them after soccer practice. And that kind of a thing. But what happens when they're 18, 19? They're off to college on their own. They're 20, 21. I mean, are you still tracking them and figuring out where they were? Are parents calling the kids to say, hey, you're supposed to be in biology class right now? I can see on your phone. You're still in your dorm. You know, get out of bed. I mean, that kind of thing. How much do you want to suffocate kids with some of these apps? Well, we track our kids. And it's for no other reason for when they're coming home. I think our kids have forgotten that we're doing it. But I've never used it to call them and say, hey, I thought you were supposed to be so-and-so. But I am 100% purely intrusive. Well, the question that was, how do you manage that relationship? As someone said, look, you're giving your kids training wheels for life. At some point, the wheels have to come off. And they have to make mistakes on their own. And they have to sleep through biology class sometimes, and learn that lesson. And I understand a lot of parents will say, well, it's still my phone playing there on. I'm paying for the tuition. I'm paying for the car. I'm going to track where they want to be. They are adults. And we all made it without that stuff. Yeah, boy. When I went to college, I think I saw my parents like three times a year after that as well. Yeah, as long as they wrote the check, right? That's what you were supposed to do. But these are all new questions to ask in the technology that really didn't exist. Certainly wasn't used as much as it is just 10 years ago. I don't know, a different time too. But I was feral as a child in the summer. I mean, we were just gone. And there was no way for my parents to get ahold of me. But I will tell you this, knowing what I know now, I like my kids way more than my parents like me when I was younger. I've done an experiment. And it's true. Your seed wasn't loved. We'll note that. I think they were fond of me. It's just, you know, it's spent as much time as I wanted out of the house. My mom had a cowbell. She would-- because there was a lot of property around it and a whole lot of kids from neighboring families. And mom would ring a cowbell for dinner time. And that was-- I can imagine today, I guess you just said a text message. But in fact, then we have a cowbell. And it's a different time. Rorio Neal, NBC News Radio, national correspondent. Thank you.