DAY AT THE BEACH

It’s now the end of June and school is officially out for my son. He’s 14-years old going on 40, but he’s still my little boy. Today was a hot day: 88 and muggy with nary a cloud in the sky. So what does a teen boy—or anyone with any sense—want to do on a day like today? He wants to go to the beach. The problem is … he doesn’t drive yet.

Driving my son places really isn’t a problem for me. It’s what parents do. They drive their teens everywhere. They’re chauffeurs. No, the real problem for me is letting go. What can I say? I’m one of those paranoid parents you hear about all time. The thing is, I’d rather be too careful than not careful enough. You hear all those horror stories in the news about how one boy went missing or a young girl was abducted and killed and it just scares the heck out of you, whatsapp spy. But my son is growing up and he wants to be independent and I need to support that. I was on my own all the time at his age and I didn’t end up on the side of a milk carton!

So, today, I drove him and his friend to the beach. I dropped them off in the front where you don’t have to pay, because it’s the drop off/pick up area, and said call me when you’re ready to come home. I instantly felt my stomach drop when he turned and walked happily away. Here I was sending my son off without any adult supervision for hours. I know it’s the beach and that there are hundreds of people there, but still.

I wasn’t worried about him swimming, spy mobile. He’s an excellent swimmer. I was worried about—oh I don’t know! I was just worried. I wasn’t there to watch him. And while I had to let go, I didn’t fully, because I installed a mobile surveillance app on his phone this year when I gave it to him. And he takes that phone with him everywhere he goes.

My son has an Android smartphone and I went with this app called Highster Mobile, which is highly rated by parents all over the world, spyware for iphone. This app lets me see what he is doing on his phone whenever he is using it. Yes, I can check his texts, emails and social media accounts—as well as his pictures and videos—but what really appealed to me was the ability to track him with the GPS locater and activate his microphone and camera.

Now, I don’t want to go spying on my son, but it made me feel a lot better knowing that I could turn his phone’s microphone on and listen in on his surroundings—just so I would know that he’s safe. I can also just snap a pic with it from my phone to get a view of what’s going on—which I did several times.

When I picked my boy up from the beach 3 hours later, hair all mussed and a big smile on his newly tan face, I felt a little guilty, but at least not worried. I knew he was safe the whole time, because I had the ability to check up on him.