Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it weren’t her, it’d be another one. There are whole swaths of the populace convinced any child out alone is in mortal danger. They’ll post to the neighborhood Facebook group in panic if they see a child walking to the convenience store unattended.
The funny thing about this is that it's all about reinforcement and standing up for what you believe in. If more parents reported ridiculous busybodies like this woman for harassment, rather than caving in and changing their parenting style, then more potential busybodies would be on notice that their busybody behavior won't be tolerated by the community.
Google releases smart watch for kids
751–760 of 809 posts
Re: Google releases smart watch for kids
#752Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry for your loss. What I meant was that it used to be so common that it was something majority of parents (or large enough fraction) expeirienced so those that didn't experience it might have been seen as not experiencing full range of parenthood. One might say that modern medicine that vastly reduced child mortality somehow keeps most of modern parents from "growing up" in that sense that they never experienc…
Ah, I see. I guess that's possibly true. On the other hand, the loss of someone close to you is practically inevitable. Eventually almost everyone will experience a devastating death (unless the person is the devastating death). In my observation, the inability to let a child off on their own without any form of supervision or in this case tracking, means that the parent is not ready to let go of that child when they…
Every 12yo I know has a cellphone already. This watch is not aimed at them.
Re: Google releases smart watch for kids
#753Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have kids? If you do you know that the main goal is to keep your kids safe and healthy. Everything else generally comes 2nd. Now there are of course extremes to this but for most the use of tracking technology is not intended as a crutch for the child but for the parent. So they know the kid is safe. Little Jimmy for the most part is not thinking if I get lost Mommy knows where I am. If they are out, they are…
> If you do you know that the main goal is to keep your kids safe and healthy. Everything else generally comes 2nd. This type of reasoning is not sound, because you can draw the line literally wherever you want and still make that argument. "Kid isn't allowed to do anything alone without a parent present" satisfies that statement, but I wouldn't want to be a teenager living in a household like that. > Little Jimmy fo…
To play devil's advocate here - my wife and I, and several of friends that we frequently travel with, all cross-share each other's locations on google maps permanently. Doesn't really feel stifling, and it's come in handy quite a few times. Why is this a terrible outcome?
I think everyone imagines the overbearing parent micromanaging their kids' lives. Maybe the problem isn't the tracking, it's the overbearing parents. As an intellectual exercise, would you rather be a kid of overbearing parents who didn't have tracking technology, or permissive parents that always know where you are?
Re: Google releases smart watch for kids
#754Earlier quoted context omitted.
The funny thing about this is that it's all about reinforcement and standing up for what you believe in. If more parents reported ridiculous busybodies like this woman for harassment, rather than caving in and changing their parenting style, then more potential busybodies would be on notice that their busybody behavior won't be tolerated by the community.
The problem is that the busybodies are usually well-meaning neighbors, trying to protect your kid from what they think is mortal danger. So throwing a fit about it is not a good look, if you care about getting along with your neighbors. The stakes are also very high: if someone gets mad enough, they might well report you to CPS, which is terrifying, especially when local laws in many places in fact allow CPS to decid…
Re: Google releases smart watch for kids
#755Earlier quoted context omitted.
There must be something you can do about that lady other than sticking a watch on your child. Something about harassment surely.
> There must be something you can do about that lady No. Not a blessed thing. Most calls to CPS are anonymous and will never be investigated, no matter often or egregious. My neighbor called CPS so often my kid would say "Oh. You again" when they showed up in school. I was designing a brochure for CPS agents to hang at the front door. It had all the schools and relatives with their contact info, along with a map to t…
Re: Google releases smart watch for kids
#756The best thing about this is, you don't have to worry about your kids outgrowing it. Google will cancel it before they do.
Re: Google releases smart watch for kids
#757Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you do you know that the main goal is to keep your kids safe and healthy. Everything else generally comes 2nd. This type of reasoning is not sound, because you can draw the line literally wherever you want and still make that argument. "Kid isn't allowed to do anything alone without a parent present" satisfies that statement, but I wouldn't want to be a teenager living in a household like that. > Little Jimmy fo…
> Or hell, maybe they won't feel stifled, even by the time they're 15, because pervasive surveillance will be so normalized to them that it would feel strange not to be tracked. IMO that's the worst possible outcome. To play devil's advocate here - my wife and I, and several of friends that we frequently travel with, all cross-share each other's locations on google maps permanently. Doesn't really feel stifling, and…
Re: Google releases smart watch for kids
#758Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hesitate to wade into these kinds of conversations but a lot of what you wrote is inaccurate. Shotguns have a limited range compared to rifles but it’s still at least 50 yards so it isn’t going to matter. People hunt deer with them, they aren’t like shotguns in video games. They can also use removable magazines and be as easy to reload as any other semi automatic firearm. There is not a single difference between a…
Getting shot by a handgun is not like getting shot by AR-15. Even at the same caliber the muzzle velocity of a modern rifle makes the bullet that much deadlier. Prime Minister Robert Fico got shot three (?) times with a handgun and it now looks like he'll survive. Of course he got the best medical care, but still, it serves to illustrate my point. With an AK-47 I cannot hit anything at 50 yards. The combination of ki…
Yeah I should have been more clear about my thoughts on this, my apologies.
Rifle rounds are unquestionably more deadly from a ballistic standpoint but at close range (25 yards or less, just for the sake of hypotheticals), before handgun round velocity falls off enough that they are ineffective, shot placement and how fast you can stop any bleeding matter much more than ballistics.
There aren’t many mass shooting events I can think off where it would have made a big difference if a pistol caliber had been used instead of a rifle caliber - it definitely would in cases like the Las Vegas concert though. That wasn’t an untrained teenager though so it might be outside of the scope of discussion anyways.
> I understand we're dealing with shades of gray here. It's about making a policy tradeoff between how many legitimate uses a weapon type has (for example home defense, farm use, hunting) and how many victims it claims.
Agreed and thank you for your very reasonable response.
Re: Google releases smart watch for kids
#759Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I object to the idea that putting a smartwatch on your child is helicopter parenting > allows kids to roam farther unsupervised, then it fosters independence. I think you understand then. It depends how the devices are used, obviously. I think no one is really objecting to the utility of being able to use such a device when there is a serious situation, but rather that the reality is that a very large number of par…
> I think no one is really objecting to the utility of being able to use such a device when there is a serious situation, but rather that the reality is that a very large number of parents use these types of devices to constantly surveil their children. There's a difference. The problem is that, from the child's perspective, there is no difference. The parent can -- genuinely and sincerely -- tell the child that they…
Re: Google releases smart watch for kids
#760Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lol, and then they get grounded. They can't hack if they are taught to expect swift consequences for messing around
Grounded for “forgetting” their phone? Kids are a lot more clever than you give them credit for :)
For example, we had this issue -- kid would "forget" the phone and then go out. We set the expectation that if they forgot they had to come straight home or else face a week or two long grounding. Lo and behold they quickly got very good at remembering.
Similar issue with "forgetting" to do all the homework and we followed a similar strategy with some success.
It's a useful technique to combat weaponized incompetence. It's nice and appropriate to reward effort instead of outcomes for new things that are still being learned, but once you know they get it, and if you suspect weappnized incompetence-- try tying an outcome they care about that you're OK with them losing on if need be, directly to the goal, and provide support and model appropriate behavior regarding reminders, todo lists, etc.
Not sure if maybe you misinterpreted my comment backward.