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jeb3838 · 10-07-2006, 08:13 PM

Putting a kid on the honor system is like letting the fox guard the hen house. I'm definitely against Big Brother and trust between parents and children is a must. On the other hand young kids can get snatched in the blink of an eye (and that's not paranoria-it happens far too often) and the more populated the world becomes the "creepy people" are going to multiply exponentially.
So I would lo jack my kids...with their knowledge and with an agreed upon protocol - meaning for emergency use only. So we would have a sit down and discuss the parameters of when the family goes to LO JACK Defcon One and that protocol would be adjusted to adapt to the age and maturity of the child.
Kids lie to their parents for good reason...they know we are going to say no and they know when they are pushing the envelope (just like we did). Kids also just simply plain forget sometimes and in a way a Lo Jack device could help them to become more responsible maybe not about being home on time but at least calling to let you know they are ok and will not be home on time. Any kid that is unaccounted for and that means the kid is not where the parent knew the kid was supposed to be either by direct supervision or by trusting the kid to be where they say they are going to be after an agreed upon time violates family failsafe proceedure and its time for LO Jack Def Con one.
I consider myself my children's parent first, their friend second. First responsibility is their safety whether they or the rest of the world like it or not.
Consider this, your kid is a victim of a worse case scenario do you want to be dealing with the guilt and regret that you could have prevented the harm to your child?
Now that I've thought about it I'd even go into Burt Gummer mode and suggest two Lojack devices on each kid because you need a redundant system in case one fails. One transplanted and the other an external device that can be manually activated with panic button like features that I've seen on some of these devices.
Something else to consider is that we and our kids sometimes find ourselves in places and situations we have no control over, stuff happens and I know there is more than once when I wish I would have had a security blanket device on my person when I was in those situations even though I wouldn't admit it then.
Saying it is all about trust is a gross oversimplification of the realities of the world we live in today. Think of it more like defensive driving because it doesn't matter how good a driver you are because there are plenty of bad ones out there to mess up your day. Samething goes with kids, no matter how good a parent you are you can't keep your eyes on them every second of every day and even that wouldn't stop the bad guys in some situations.
Every piece of technology that has ever been developed has been abused by mankind and that will always be human nature, but in many cases it is the exception and not the rule and in this case abuse of the system is entirely in the hands of the parent.
Parents and Kids are probably more likely to give these situations more serious thought and develop a plan for these kinds of situations just by tallking about gettin a LO Jack type device whether they actually do or not and that is probably a good thing.

10-07-2006, 08:13 PM	#37 (permalink)
jeb3838 Upright	Boundaries Putting a kid on the honor system is like letting the fox guard the hen house. I'm definitely against Big Brother and trust between parents and children is a must. On the other hand young kids can get snatched in the blink of an eye (and that's not paranoria-it happens far too often) and the more populated the world becomes the "creepy people" are going to multiply exponentially. So I would lo jack my kids...with their knowledge and with an agreed upon protocol - meaning for emergency use only. So we would have a sit down and discuss the parameters of when the family goes to LO JACK Defcon One and that protocol would be adjusted to adapt to the age and maturity of the child. Kids lie to their parents for good reason...they know we are going to say no and they know when they are pushing the envelope (just like we did). Kids also just simply plain forget sometimes and in a way a Lo Jack device could help them to become more responsible maybe not about being home on time but at least calling to let you know they are ok and will not be home on time. Any kid that is unaccounted for and that means the kid is not where the parent knew the kid was supposed to be either by direct supervision or by trusting the kid to be where they say they are going to be after an agreed upon time violates family failsafe proceedure and its time for LO Jack Def Con one. I consider myself my children's parent first, their friend second. First responsibility is their safety whether they or the rest of the world like it or not. Consider this, your kid is a victim of a worse case scenario do you want to be dealing with the guilt and regret that you could have prevented the harm to your child? Now that I've thought about it I'd even go into Burt Gummer mode and suggest two Lojack devices on each kid because you need a redundant system in case one fails. One transplanted and the other an external device that can be manually activated with panic button like features that I've seen on some of these devices. Something else to consider is that we and our kids sometimes find ourselves in places and situations we have no control over, stuff happens and I know there is more than once when I wish I would have had a security blanket device on my person when I was in those situations even though I wouldn't admit it then. Saying it is all about trust is a gross oversimplification of the realities of the world we live in today. Think of it more like defensive driving because it doesn't matter how good a driver you are because there are plenty of bad ones out there to mess up your day. Samething goes with kids, no matter how good a parent you are you can't keep your eyes on them every second of every day and even that wouldn't stop the bad guys in some situations. Every piece of technology that has ever been developed has been abused by mankind and that will always be human nature, but in many cases it is the exception and not the rule and in this case abuse of the system is entirely in the hands of the parent. Parents and Kids are probably more likely to give these situations more serious thought and develop a plan for these kinds of situations just by tallking about gettin a LO Jack type device whether they actually do or not and that is probably a good thing.