I was known for going missing when I was a kid. Up until my dad died I led a very busy life. We were always doing something, my dad was incredible for that. However, at the end of the day I was autistic and thus even though a very busy social life was kinda forced on me I did need time to myself. TBH? even thinking about it scares me, but I just had no fear. One day my mother and I (this was when I was about 6) were walking to my aunt's house in Streatham Vale. It was about a 2 mile walk to her house. Any way, my mother used to stop at this woman's house called Brenda and then stand there and waffle for about an hour. I hated it... Any way, one day I decide bugger this, I am walking there on my own. So I just left. How I got there without being ran over or what not is a mystery. I just remember my poor mother arriving and looking like she was about to keel over and die. I never did that again after that. If I needed time to myself I would just go down the end of the garden and play by the shed (our garden was 95ft long) so that was how I got my time to myself. But yeah, I was bad for it. We would go to running meetings and I would just bugger off and play in the woods. I guess I am lucky really that I never ran into some old pervert I'd have been screwed. Things have not gotten any better since then. Our area was safe during the 70s. After that it got very busy very quickly and there were plenty of bad people around. If I had kids I would want tracking devices on them. Simply out of my mistrust for humanity as an adult. There are a lot more people around these days and thus a lot more perves and nutters. In a way I am kinda glad I didn't have kids, as I would have been a right old worry wort and made their lives miserable by smothering them.
Too late to suggest 'not having kids' as an option? That said, everything seems to be some combo of: Expensive Designed to be attatched to something other than your sprog. Only tells you if they've wandered off, not where they are [like this]
Attach the sprogs to yourself with bungies. If they get too far away they will be pinged back to you.
GPS tracking could be useful but let's face it perverts are gonna know what's what and could cut any external tracker off within seconds. Please please please just don't take your eyes off them. Had a few scares many years ago and were even in Spain just a few miles from where Madeline went missing and with ground floor windows that didn't lock. GPS isn't the answer.
Yeah, I've been looking at exactly that on Amazon - at £20 it's cheap enough, but the reviews are extremely mixed. They're either "works brilliantly" or "doesn't work at all, says my kid's in Hong Kong." A wrist strap would be easier. Should be do-able with a bracelet and a blob of Sugru. I'm in absolutely no way concerned about perverts or abductions by same. That's vanishingly unlikely to happen. All I'm looking for is something where I can let the older one wander around, and when it's time to head back to the accommodation easily find her again without having to walk up and down shouting her name. It's not something for them to wear 24/7, I wouldn't be monitoring it second-by-second, it's purely for when we're out and about on holiday. This isn't Taken, and I ain't Liam Neeson. Nor am I the NSA. In buying a GPS tracker, I'm trying to increase my children's autonomy and freedom by allowing them to wander further and more freely than I would feel comfortable with if I couldn't ping their location as and when I wanted to find 'em.
I agree that a wrist strap would be easier, I just thought for wee wrists and arms a wrist strap might be a bit bulky/awkward, especially if the actual device isn't designed to conform to a wrist. I though a little pouch or clip might be better.
True - might be worth me seeing if my local Vodafone shop has 'em in stock, so I could have a look at how bulky they are in the flesh. Er, plastic.
Get both kids a hoodie....let them terrorise your local community for a while....ta daaaaa... Free ankle tags and they even throw in a free ASBO as well
2 old cheap phones not a easier way of doing this? 2 old iPhones can be had for under a £100. Stick it in a bag around there neck like daddy has and job done. Those bags tend to be waterproof too. Kids love phones
Too bulky, too obvious, too "hey, kid, let me have a look at that, *yoink*"-worthy, too likely that the kid'll fiddle with it (seriously, there's no way I'm going to convince my two-year-old not to remove the obviously-a-phone from the bag and try to play CBeebies Playground on it), and £100 for two ratty old iPhones of unknown provenance and almost-certainly-dodgy battery life (I'd do it Android, myself) is only £18 cheaper than a pair of brand-new dedicated V-Bags with all the software side of things handled for me.
Super lazy wrist-strap for the V-bag: snip the existing strap in half, reverse the loop end (it will attach to the square boss on the back in any of the 4 possible orientations). You now have two bits of strap sticking out in opposite directions, but too short for even a tiny wrist if rejoined. Locate podling (using traditional sonar method), wrap tape snugly around wrist sticky-side out. Stick V-bag onto wrist, wrap strap stubs around as far as they will go unstretched. Snip tape to remove from wrist. Rejoin tape ends to the same length or a few mm shorter. Now, grab some Sugru of an appropriately matching colour (or not), form into a strip, and wrap along the tape between the two cut ends. The Sugru will happily bond securely to the existing silicone of the strap. Remove the tape once cured, and you now have a perfectly sized silicone strap using the existing attachment mechanism. Or just grab a cheap continuous watch strap and glue the V-pod to that.
S'what Dog Tags are for, less than a fiver at your local army surplus fully stamped up with what ever you want putting on them
If'n it was me I'd just have the kid wear a belt and wear the V-Bag as a pager clipped nice n secure with no bodgery needed