I was completely free-range as a kid in the 60’s— at age 7 was often blocks away from my family’s apartment for hours completely on my own. I wanted so badly to be like that for my kids (now young adults) but found I just couldn’t.
Plus..I’m sure CPS would have come after me if I were that free-range a parent when my kids were young.
My husband’s family is all about the Life360 and has a giant group with all kinds of family members, multiple generations from Grandparents to grandkids, extended family, in-laws…all tracking each other…LOL. Every time they mention it I conveniently leave the room or claim I’m low on space for apps on my phone or something…anything but having a couple dozen people knowing where I am. Husband was talked into joining at one point because an elderly family member was always worried about “where he was” because he hadn’t joined and she thought he was “missing.” I’m not sure if he has kept it on his phone or not.
My indulgence is keeping my two college kids google photos accounts logged in on my iPad. They know it’s logged in, and don’t mind if I take a peek every once in a while. 
I never mention to my kid where his phone says he is. But I do check. And I certainly checked the night after fraternity bid night to make sure he made it back to his dorm okay. If I was hassling him about where he is all the time, that would be different. He can always turn off the tracking, if he wants to.
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The Life360 conversation comes around every so often, it seems, with parents on both ends of the spectrum.
All five of us use it, mostly for convenience. We asked D22 if she wanted to remove it when she went to college, but no, she feels better knowing where we are and what we’re doing – helps her feel connected, she said. Same with S25. Although I doubt they actually look unless they’re trying to text us and we haven’t responded within 5 seconds, lol.
And frankly, it’s just helpful – can’t count the number of times I’ve sat at the cell phone lot at the airport and watched D22 exit the plane and head toward baggage claim (which can take a full 20-30 minutes, if you know the Atlanta airport) – I now have the timing down to a science, because you can’t pull up and wait for someone in your car. A cop will blare a horn at you and make you circle. So it’s great to know exactly where she is!
I can see both of mine on the Find My app. I don’t use it all that often - mostly to check if they’re in an academic building before texting. I don’t look at it late night or early morning because they’re adults, and I want to respect their privacy.
Just our experience, but the spectrum changed as our kids grew up. While all of them were in HS, they more or less tolerated the location app we all used which was a requirement of being able to drive themselves around. Now as young adults, they feel more connected with us and each other by sharing locations.
The other day my 26 year old (the same one who grumbled about the app in HS) called me as I was driving to say she was at the park that I just drove by about to start a yoga class. “Mom, loop around so I can give you a hug!”
I’d agree with this – especially if the purpose is not to catch someone out for what they’re doing. I know my college kids stay out until all hours because I did the same thing in college, lol. I don’t look or comment – they are adults, and that’s their business. We really just use it as a tool of convenience and safety (the app gave me a lot of peace of mind when my oldest was traversing Europe one summer).
I also look to see when my husband is about to leave somewhere and ask him to stop by the store on his way home. 
It drives me insane that my husband has a samsung and not an iPhone so I can’t do this. I bought a four pack of AirTags last year on a Black Friday sale and only needed two, so I’ve got two extra, and I’m seriously thinking of putting one in his car… Not for anything nefarious (I’m not, like, worried he’s out cruising chicks) but because he has very random work hours - as long as he’s there 8 hours, no cares when he arrives or leaves. So somedays he doesn’t start until later, which means he gets home later, and if I’m trying to figure out whether to start dinner, or to just go ahead and eat mine and he can catch up when he gets home, i’d like to see where he is. (And yes, this COULD be remedied with a call or text. He’s terrible about actually using his phone, half the time leaves it in the car, or leaves it in his bag, doesn’t think to check it etc.)
That is D25. She watches me way more than I watch her.
We have Life 360 for my 2 college kids. Oldest (age 24) shares location on Snapchat. I am an android user, the kids are Apple so life360 works for us. I use it mostly for the crash detection (and it has called me on S23 before when he crashed his motorcycle). That being said, I dont watch locations too much as my oldest has been in the ER twice without me knowing. Oops. I am a bad stalker (and considering I worked ER for 25 years a bit surprising for me).
Yeah, and that’s the rub—sometimes it isn’t, but sometimes it is.
A couple years ago, my C23 was out with friends in the town next to their university, and they decided to eat dinner at a restaurant. Shortly thereafter, one of C23’s friends started getting texts from her parents of the “What were you doing at a bar?” type. (Context: All of them would have been under 21 at the time.)
Of course, it turns out they weren’t at a bar—but the restaurant they ate at shares a building with a bar (one of them on the first floor, the other on the second floor). But for parents who use location trackers as an enforcement mechanism…
Speaking as someone who refuses to ever use an iPhone: You still can, you just have to do it through Google Maps. It’s easy.
my kids sent my Halloween photos - my S22 and a fraternity brother went as Phinneas and Ferb, and my S25 went as Bob Ross, and I am laughing so hard that I don’t even know what to do with myself.
I hope all our kids are fun and safe and silly and all the good Halloween everything tonight.
Mine went as Ted Lasso! 
He needed an easy Halloween costume to wear for several different events, and you can’t get much easier than a tracksuit.
It’s fun watching D25 find her way and her ‘people’. Tonight she’s ordering food and watching scary movies with kids from her freshman seminar class.
D25 hasnt left her dorm complex since Thursday afternoon. She is not a party person at all. I got a vague 1 word response so I know she is alive. She has friends that are in the same dorm complex and she has a dining hall, Subway, and a market so she isn’t isolated.
S25 went to a sorority date night party with his girlfriend on Thursday night dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Smith. They recycled those costumes Friday night. They looked great! S23 did a group costume with the XC team. They picked Clash Royale. He’s never played it, so he said he picked the character that seemed the easiest to create a costume for. He didn’t share any other details or a picture. 
Mine didn’t do any Halloween things either, I don’t think. They had 2 club activities on Saturday, which took most of the day, and then 2 assignments due today.
Last week, a roommate to my D: “hey, next week we plan to go do XYZ, do you want to go?”
D: “Sure, sounds like fun”
all week: silence, zero communication from anyone to or from D about XYZ plans (admittedly, she could be more proactive)
this weekend: D comes home from football, “hey guys, I’m gonna take a quick shower”…roommates all leave to go do XYZ while she’s in the shower without mentioning anything or saying a word to D. (D knows this because school encourages roommate tracking for safety.)
Just back from our parents’ weekend visit. It went by so quickly! We couldn’t leave until after DH’s work Friday which meant we arrived in the evening. We drove straight to her dorm and D25 was so excited to see us! She was not really into Halloween parties so was happy to go for ice cream and hang out with us for a bit.
On Saturday we had fun exploring- partly with D25, partly on our own. My mom (who lives nearby) came too, which was nice, but as she’s near 80 we realized it was hard for her to keep up with us, walking back and forth around campus all day. For future visits we are going to need to figure something else out, so that my mom can still connect with D25 but not get exhausted.
We had a heart to heart with D25 about her worries about efficient studying/getting behind in classes. Not to go into too much detail but I think anxiety/mental health issues are part of the issue (ie getting anxious and then having trouble focusing, having maladaptive ways of coping with stress). She had gone for an intake appointment at the counseling center but then didn’t follow-up with counseling. By the close of our weekend she sent a follow-up email, so that’s progress! Also– we got a text update this evening as she was going through her homework– she had some of her essays graded and is doing better in class than she thought!
Re following her phone- we all have iPhones & can see each other on Find My. Usually we use it to connect with each other (ie DH sees if I’ve left work yet, D25 checked to see how close I was to picking her up, etc). I don’t know D25’s exact class schedule, and honestly I’m not interested in checking to see if she made it to class (turns out she’s already slept through a morning class- so did I as a freshman!). I do remember checking it frequently after we dropped her off… mostly it just made me feel good to “see” where she was. I still sometimes check it randomly.. makes me feel connected!
Well, that’s crappy. 
My S25, too, is having a rough time navigating some group dynamics – from what he tells me, I feel like he’s being treated poorly, but then he assures me, “No, it’s chill, Mom.” But he’s not the most aware kid, and I know he’s missing his high school friends and is wanting a group to hang out with – I just think these kids he’s been hanging around are not the ones.
I have very gently suggested that he will continue to meet all kinds of people, but he’s actually pretty good about being friendly to everyone, so I’m hoping he finds a better group soon.