Summer Sitter

Summer’s officially here and school is over and I don’t know what the hell my teens are up to because they’re at home and I’m at work. That makes me nervous. Really nervous. So I went and installed a mobile monitoring app called Highster Mobile on each and every one of their smartphones and iPads to make sure they’re safe and not doing anything foolish.

Let me just say that my teens are good kids—but they’re kids. Yes, teens, but that’s still kids. Are they really able to take care of themselves all day long without adult supervision? I think so. No, I hope so—obviously—since I’ve left them in that situation. I don’t have a choice though. I’m a single mom. And they’re teenagers. I stayed home all summer long by myself when I was their age. So why shouldn’t they be able to? Are they really any different than I was when I was their age? Hmm. That’s a good question, android phone tracker.

Are teens today really any different than teens of yesteryear? History would tell us ‘no’, but if you ask me, technology says ‘yes’. The Internet and smartphones have accelerated our kids’ rate of growth … emotionally … so to speak. How? They are exposed to EVERYTHING—all day long. They can access absolutely anything they want with the touch of their fingers. Think about. Social media and its connections to celebrities, politicians, up-to-the-minute news, tabloid fodder, role models, opinionated peers, terrorists; apps; websites; the ability to take and share photos instantly—all instantly expose our children to everything the digital world has to offer. It has to have some affect on their maturation. Or immaturation. Not a real word, I know, how to spy on iphone.

Our kids are definitely being affected by the constant digital stimuli. For one thing, they can’t turn it off. They’re addicted to it. The fact that it’s all there makes them even more curious and crave-y. Again, not a real word, I know. Yes, they’re being exposed to a plethora of great things. Entertaining things. Educational things. But they are just as exposed to all the bad things. Porn. Hardcore porn. News. Bad news (rapes, sex attacks, bombings, tortures, etc.). Bullies. Trolls. Perverts. Pedophiles. Hackers. Terrorists. How can I keep them safe when I’m not around? And how can I keep them safe from these digital dangers even when I am around?

These are the things that keep me up at night and haunt me during the day. So that’s why I put a spy app on their devices. I may not be around, but their phones are always around. They never go anywhere without them. Ever! By putting the software on their devices, I can access their control panels to see exactly how much time they are spending on them, how to track someones iphone. I don’t want them on the devices all day long—which I know they’ll do if I’m not around to say, “turn it off.” I can see what websites they’re browsing, who they are texting and talking with and view the pictures they’re taking and sending and see what they are doing on social media. But it works the other way. I can monitor who is trying to get to them. Hackers, scammers, pedophiles, bullies—they can all be known to me, because I have direct access to their point of entry in my children’s lives. I can even activate their device’s cameras and microphones to make sure they are safe by snapping a picture and listening in on their surroundings and find out where they are by tracking them with the app’s GPS locator.

It’s not the best-case scenario, but it’s a better one than I have. At least I know I won’t be blind to what’s happening in my teens’ lives while I’m working to make their lives better. It’s really the next best thing to having a babysitter.

I’M WITH STUPID

Remember those funny t-shirts? The ones with the arrow pointing left or right and with the words “I’m With Stupid” written on them? They were supposed to be funny (and they were to me), because you would be wearing it and standing next to someone who, because the arrow was pointing his or her way, was now officially the one dubbed “Stupid”. Well, that’s how I feel when I’m with my son sometimes. Like I’m the one wearing the shirt and he’s “Stupid”, because … well … because sometime he is.

I know. I know. It’s horrible to say that about your own flesh and blood, but hear me out. He’s a teenager. A 15-year old boy. And 15-year old boys can be really, really stupid. And believe me, I’m not just talking about today’s teen boys, how to track someones iphone. I’m talking about all teenage boys—throughout modern history at least.

I was a stupid teenage boy—and I’m sure that my dad was too. I imagine that he thought about wearing the “I’m With Stupid” t-shirt when he stood next to me in the 80s and that his dad would have too (had they been invented in the 1950s) with him. It’s just the circle of life. Teens are learning, experimenting and exploring—and all while their brains are turned off at times. It’s really quite comical—that is, if nothing dangerous happens. That’s why boys are always laughing at each other. One farts on his friend while he’s laying on the couch, another throws a rock or dirt-bomb at his buddy’s bike tires as he races down the street. Some get together to ring and run and others do it to peep in windows. It’s all kind of harmless, but yet, it can all lead to trouble, android phone tracker.

Now we have the Internet—and that’s a whole new world of trouble. It’s any parent’s guess what their teenager is doing on there all day long. Yes, there’s plenty of innocent fun like YouTube, Spotify, gaming, tweeting and Instagramming, but with every good aspect of something, there’s a bad one as well.

I installed a mobile monitoring app on my son’s iPhone and iPad so that I can make sure he’s not doing something wrong. Every now and then, I check his browser history to see what sites he’s viewing. I’m a man. I know that there’s plenty of free porn out there—and I wish that I’d had that when I was his age—but I want to make sure he doesn’t veer in the direction of anything hardcore or illegal, so I check it. I also read his tweets and Facebook posts (since he won’t Friend me) to make sure he’s not putting up anything inappropriate or saying anything derogatory. And every now and then, I track him with the app’s GPS locator and snap a picture remotely with his phone’s camera to make sure that he is where he’s supposed to be and not doing anything stupid or unsafe, how to spy on iphone.

Judge me if you will, but know this, at the first sign of trouble caused by or to my son, I’ll know right away—and I’ll be able to deal with it ASAP. I don’t want his reputation or his life ruined because he did something stupid on the Internet. After all, the Internet is forever and I don’t want it pointing a “Stupid” label at my boy for the rest of his life.

Our Son Had an Eating Disorder: How Cell Phone Monitoring Software Helped Us Get to the Bottom of Things

Until we discovered our son was struggling with an eating disorder, it was too easy to believe that eating disorders were something that only affected teenaged girls. Our stereotype of a teenager with an eating disorder is a female student, usually a cheerleader, who panics about calories. And please don’t think I’m minimizing what female sufferers of eating disorders experience every day.

But I think it speaks to just how invisible male sufferers really are. We don’t tend to notice that a boy is struggling with an eating disorder until it’s too late, android phone tracker. And this was almost my son’s story until we discovered some strange behavior on his phone thanks to cell phone monitoring software.

Here’s how we got to the bottom of things and helped save my son from his eating disorder.

Noticing the Signs

Now we’d installed cell phone monitoring software long before we ever knew that my son was struggling with anorexia. Our son is fourteen and I think cell phone monitoring software is a great way to help keep an eye on his Internet and phone activity without constantly asking him to hand over his phone.

We don’t check every text, email, or social media message he sends with cell phone monitoring software but the option is always there just in case we ever have to take a look at his activity online or we’re a little suspicious for whatever reason. He knows that he has the software on his phone. But what he didn’t realize is that cell phone monitoring software logs even messages and texts he’s deleted.

Our son has never had a weight problem but we noticed that he was eating less. At the dinner table, he’d move food around, how to spy on iphone. We even discovered he’d stuff food in his cheeks and spit it out in the toilet in order to make it look like he’d eaten food off his plate.

But we didn’t think he was anorexic. Not at first. He was losing weight but at first, we chalked it up to growing pains and the fact that he played basketball. It wasn’t until we took a look at his Internet browsing history that we realized what was really going on.

Cell phone monitoring software helped us realize that our son had an eating disorder. He had done internet searches on how to hide his eating disorder, how to force himself to vomit, and things like that. We were shocked, of course, but we knew that we had to do something before it was too late.

How We Got Our Son Help

We enrolled our son in an eating disorder support group so he could be around other teenagers dealing with eating disorders. We also got him to see a therapist so we could get to the bottom of what was going on.

As it turned out, our son was having body image issues. But with therapy and gentle encouragement, he began to eat again. It’s sometimes still a struggle for him to eat but he’s putting on a healthy amount of weight and is healthier than he’s ever been, how to track someones iphone. He’s back to himself and we use cell phone monitoring software to make sure our son is still safe and sound.

I can’t imagine what would have happened if we didn’t have cell phone monitoring software to watch out for our son. He may very well have gotten even sicker. Like many teenagers with anorexia, he might even be dead. But cell phone monitoring software helped us figure out that he really was struggling with an eating disorder and now that our son is able to get the help he needed all this time, I couldn’t be more thankful I discovered cell phone monitoring software.