Has anyone recently looked into watches that can call a parent? Would be great to hear about the various options available.
Thank you!
Our young one is too young for a mobile phone for school and it would be great if he had a way to communicate with us whenever he wants to play with friends after class.
We have a landline “exclusively” for the kid. She uses it to check in with us or for me to let her know if I’m running late, or to come to the garage to help with groceries. Very cheap, hooked up through our internet (Swisscom).
I would recommend the Weenect tracker for kids. Its a subscription based service which gives you 10 mins of calls a month through the tracker which should be enough for your needs. The advantage over a watch is that it has a 5-7 day battery life, and probably more if you disable the GPS tracking feature and just use it as a dumb phone. Its also a boring blue box with a red button to call you, so it won't be the subject of much attention from other kids
Looking at if from another angle, as schools are normally so close to people's homes - can't your child drop by the house first, dump their bag and then ask whether they can go out again?
Have you used this? I’m interested did you order direct or from Amazon? Any issues? I’m interested a communication device for the kid.
Not where we are. Many of the kids live in the next couple of towns and take the bus.
https://www.swisscom.ch/en/residenti...actDuration=24
Got this recently, battery life of about 2 days . Some of child’s classmates also have it
We have a landline at home, but I am looking for something when my son is away from home and needs to tell us he will be late.
We are not that close to the local school - plus it’s an uphill walk home. We just moved and he has just made new friends, so we are looking at ways to make his social life a bit easier.
Yes I had two of them for the kids and used them for about 3 years before finally retiring them when they were old enough to have a smartphone. I ordered direct from Weenect and set-up and use was all pretty straightforward using an App or their web based console.
At the time there were a number of these generic watch based devices but they were mainly from China with servers out there. I was skeptical about data privacy and the fact that they could disappear at any point leaving me with a useless device. Weenect are French with EU based servers and a large enough user base (they also make trackers for pets and the elderly). That and their long history inspired more confidence in the service.
Excellent. Going to look into this. Much appreciated.
It just occurred to me that the 2G cellular network may soon be retired in Switzerland, and this is how the trackers work. I fired off an email to weenect to ask them if the latest units are future proofed (e.g. 3G/4G/5G) or will they provide replacement devices later?... so will let you know when I hear back.
UPDATE: Sorry, looks like its no longer a good recommendation. It should still work on Sunrise, but I would prefer the redundancy of another network.
Thanks for checking. I wouldn’t have thought of that!
Just get a non-smart mobile phone?
Like this Weenect a lot. The watch from Swisscom is interesting but not sure my son is disciplined enough to charge it every 2 days
Plus unlimited calls and SMS
That was our suggestion too, but our kid has reminded us that phones are not allowed at school . There are times when I wish he would be less intransigent...
I think schools ought to be more flexible.
When I was young and was going to be home late, I'd call home from a public pay phone. This is no longer possible and there should be an alternative made available for parents.
One option would be an Apple Watch if you already have an iPhone. You need a cellular version for your child and that way he can make and receive calls, get messages etc.. Apple have recently rolled out a Family plan which makes it possible for smaller kids to have a watch without needing an accompanying iPhone. I would buy a cheap second hand Series 4 cellular or above from Ricardo.
The only major con is that he's need to get into the habit of charging it each night.
I think You can limit contacts on the phone, can check and let you know , limit apps and also set school time during which phone is silent and most apps cannot be used.
Agree on low battery life , 2 days is too short for children watch
Are phones not allowed at all or are they just not allowed to be used at school?
My son’s school had a no phones in school policy so they had to be turned off at all times and they were very strict in that but the kids were allowed to have a phone in their bag so they could use it in an emergency.
My son had to use his several times as it was quite easy to miss a bus connection on one day of the week if the teacher didn’t finish the lesson promptly.
I had to look that up. I suppose it's the school being intransigent.