<p>^ I’m not even sure what you’d do with the information. How can you tell if your child is at someone else’s dorm room until 2AM on a Thursday drinking and shacking up, or cramming with a study group for a tough exam? Or whether you child is on his MacBook writing a paper or surfing porn.</p>
<p>At some point you have to trust your adult child to make adult decisions.</p>
<p>This a whole higher level of stalking then the poster last week or so who was worried if their kid was in a ditch. This is a parent who wants a minute-by-minute log of his kid’s location. I am so grateful I grew up at a time that wasn’t possible! How on earth do kids like this become functional adults, with mommy and daddy breathing down their necks every waking moment (and some sleeping moments!)?</p>
<p>My HS sophomore is very responsible and sensible so I don’t need to push her much about anything. The college she is considering has a freshman seminar where they check in with an adviser once a week to head off any possible problems. It works well-the college’s grad rate is much higher than the national average. But that’s a far, far cry from MY wanting to know where she will be every second. Even at home she gets far more privacy than that.</p>
<p>I feel so bad for these kids with such invasive parents.</p>
<p>You don’t have to cut all the apron strings when the kid goes away, but you really should cut some of them. This is one that should be cut, if only for your own sanity.</p>
<p>And that iPhone thing? OMG. A parent could easily get addicted to watching their kid’s every movement 24/7. Stalking aside, I think you’d drive yourself nuts. “Where’s she going now? What! Coffee again? Hey! That’s a men’s corridor!”</p>
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<p>This. I can imagine a circumstance where checking up on your kid through social media or through friends might be warranted, but if your child has given you no reason to think they are doing anything harmful to themselves (and I don’t mean cutting classes,lol) or illegal, then I think it’s over the line to track, stalk, or follow their activities, social or academic. </p>
<p>Personally, I don’t find cutting the occasional class a problem. I did it, didn’t you? Part of growing up is balancing the different priorities in our lives, and sometimes a class might not be the top priority. I know my son occasionally cut a class to make a plane flight so he could make it to the east coast (where his girlfriend attended college) before the last train to town shut down. Some parents might find this unacceptable, but I trusted him to make the right decision for himself. He graduated PBK and married the girlfriend. Hard to argue with the outcome.</p>
<p>^^^^I agree. What I find interesting is that many of the parents who are so into their kids’ chili were NOT raised by parents like that. Most of us didn’t speak to our parents more than once a week, because long distance phone calls were expensive. I think my parents came to my school twice: to move me in Freshman year, and to see me walk at graduation. I would have been soooo insulted by the kind of micromanagement inflicted upon kids by their parents nowadays, many of whom come from my generation. How did this happen?!</p>
<p>Maybe in a few years parents will start micro-chipping their kids. :D</p>
<p>How? I think the answer is that we can so many do. Our parents couldn’t do those things so they didn’t. And the 24/7 accessibility to scary news makes parents feel like they have to do that. They’re afraid. I get that. But it doesn’t mean we should surrender to those fears. Kids have to learn to figure things out for themselves.</p>
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You mean other people don’t do it? :)</p>
<p>I have a marauder’s map. I track their every move and who they are with, even when they go into Hogsmead for a butterbeer.</p>
<p>“Maybe in a few years parents will start micro-chipping their kids.”</p>
<p>I have a friend who seriously wondered if that should be a thing. I haven’t taken anything she’s said seriously since then.</p>
<p>I am so shocked by this that I think it might be a ■■■■■. No way someone is actually doing this! First semester freshman year I did have my daughters schedule because I didn’t want to text her while she was in a class because I knew that she couldn’t not look at her phone but other than that - no checking at all. Matter of fact, I even trust her when she told me what her GPA is - I don’t know how to check official records. </p>
<p>Blossom brought up a good point that hasn’t been talked about much. Going to class isn’t the problem; it is going to class and paying attention. I have two in college and one says he finds it funny that many of the kids go to class and spend time on Facebook and texting and then need to study/read to learn what the prof. covered in class. If they just paid attention in the first place, they would be better off. </p>
<p>I have parent passwords to both kids accounts but only check occasionally and tell them when I do, so that key things don’t get missed, typically finance related, like pay the tuition bill. Both schools required the student to grant parent access to grades but only publish end of semester grades anyway, so you just need to trust them and remind them that the only reason they are in school is get a degree. How they manage their time is part of the learning experience. </p>
<p>It only took a short time the first year for both of them to learn how to balance social life, gaming, studying, sleeping etc. You can’t take the classes for them. Both kids knew that if they abused the privilege of attending a university and living away from home, that they would be right back in the house commuting to the local community college. </p>
<p>If kid gets all As, who cares if they cut classes or not? On the other hand, there is no reason to pay high tuition either, it is a family choice. So, if some family has chosen to pay a high tuition and the kid is not getting those As, then pull the kid to another school with very low tuition. Anything else will tell the kid to continue doing what he/she is doing. </p>
<p>If DC can’t be relied upon to wake up & go to class, then maybe DC isn’t ready to go away for college</p>
<p>Why don’t you just ask your kid if he/she has skipped classes? Direct question, simple answer. I mean, your kid would never even think of lying to you, would he/she? ;)</p>
<p>(My freshman S actually told me that he overslept/was late for class. I didn’t ask–he volunteered this info.) </p>
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Retailers, entertainment, medical and other business have been thinking about using micro-chip (whether implemented or as part of your smart phone) to tailor specific marketing or services to consumers. As an example, if your chip shows you like a particular brand of clothing, when you walk by a billboard, it may advertise that brand or similar brand to you. If you like particular kind of movie/show, your cable maybe smart enough to show the kind of movies you would like. It maybe useful to have a chip with all of your medical information.</p>
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<p>OMG, oldfort. Just kill me now.</p>
<p>When you go into a store, they use your smart phone to track how much time you spend in each department or display they put up. The theory is longer you stay, more likely you are to make a purchase. This is all made possible because of Big Data. I am getting off topic here.</p>
<p>^^^^One day I drove over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to look at comforters. Right as I drove up, I got a text…from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, with a 20% off coupon.</p>
<p>Coming soon to a multiplex cinema near you; The Stepford Students!</p>