Family GPS Tracker – 5 Reasons to Consider One

family gps locator app

Many parents wonder if they should adopt a family GPS tracker app or service. There are many benefits to using a Family GPS Tracker like MamaBear, but we know parents can always use a little more justification.

Here are the top five reasons why our customers use a family GPS tracker like MamaBear, in addition to a few tips on what separates the better family GPS tracker apps.

1. Worry Less

The first and most obvious benefit of a family GPS tracker app is the way it provides parents peace of mind. By easily knowing where your kids are without having to call, parents can get the information they need to ease some anxiety. You may even look like less of a nag by not interrupting social hang out time to simply check in with your kids.

2. Get to Your Kids Quickly

A family GPS tracker app allows parents to know where their kids are in the case of an emergency, an unexpected or uncomfortable circumstance. A parent can start heading toward their child’s location immediately.

3. Know if They Go Somewhere They Shouldn’t

 One very basic function of a family GPS tracker app is letting parents know if a child has strayed from established boundaries to places that could be dangerous. A family GPS tracker with alerts is particularly useful for accountability.

4. Know When They Leave

A good family GPS tracker can also let you know when your kids have left a location. For instance, with MamaBear, parents can set the Drop-Off alert to notify them when their child leaves their current location.

5. Give Them an Emergency Lifeline

One of the most important components of a family GPS tracker app is protecting the kids. GPS apps that give kids an easy panic button to inform parents that there is an emergency, and they need help are by far the best options.

When you are looking for a family GPS tracker, you should look for a few features. Accuracy is important; being able to track your kid’s as close to accurate location is half the point, as is continuous tracking without the app closing or having intermittent location tracking times. A minimal cost to battery life is also important though most all location services app have some affect on battery life. Easy to view maps, detailed views and historical views are all good qualities in an app. Apps that provide parental alerts are usually the best saving parents time from having to always open the app.

MamaBear packs all of these features into one easy to use family GPS tracker app. We developed the MamaBear app to give parents the widest range of options possible in a simple interface. We’ve built the app with protecting our children top of mind and always honoring families.

Is it Ok to Track Your Kids Cell Phone?

track your kids cell phone

There’s a lot of discussion lately about whether or not it’s ok to track your kid’s cell phone. Parents grapple with what’s enough, and when’ve we gone too far when it comes to our kids. I spend a fair amount of time talking to parents on both sides of this conversation. As parents, we know our kids aren’t going to accept every measure we use to protect them with the same love we feel when enforcing certain boundaries. At MamaBear, we know the decision to track your kids cell phone isn’t one parents take lightly with many reasons behind the decision. It could be purely safety, some accountability and opportunity to have real life cases to discuss with our children.

Knowing where our children are, and their social media behavior is our responsibility as parents and present riskier long-term consequences for kids in today’s tech world. So many parents find the best solution to giving a child the responsibility of having a smartphone to be a tracking app. Basically, tracking a phone is tracking a child – do you know a kid with a smartphone that goes too long without it? And parents that want to track their child, are well within their rights. Smartphones are not cheap, especially brand new ones. Buying a child the equivalent to a small personal computer can mean a pretty significant investment. Using a parental tracking app like MamaBear to monitor your child’s smartphone represents money well spent.

Child acceptance of a tracking app begins best with a straightforward conversation. Explaining up front that you intend to monitor your kid’s cell phone is a great way to make them understand the responsibility that comes with owning such an information accessible device. We give them the freedom to use a smartphone, participate on social media and hang out at locations within limits, but with any life experience, we want comfort knowing we’ve shared potential risks and outcomes with our children as they make choices. Having additional insight to our children’s daily lives provides for more relevant conversations with our children. Technologies, like the MamaBear app for Android and iPhones represent an easy, effective, time-saving way to achieve this.

At MamaBear, we know the goal when you track your kids cell phone is not spying. It’s about keeping our children safe. The MamaBear child tracking app gives parents as much, or as little, information they need to feel their child is safe. This can give our children the freedom they need to grow while giving us some security.

The Benefits of a Family Locator App like MamaBear

family locator app

A family locator app may sound pretty simple. It should be an easy to use app that uses global positioning satellites (GPS) and a smartphone to give parents up-to-date information about their child’s location. In actuality, the idea of instantaneous tracking of a child’s whereabouts is fairly complex; as is the wide range of options it can offer parents. Monitoring a child’s location can be an invaluable parenting tool, and can go far beyond simple tracking. A family locator app gives parents a means to ensure children have been and are where they are supposed to be.

Family tracking apps can be used with a few intentions – safety, accountability and parental peace of mind. It offers families a life-saving technological innovation in the case of an emergency. In addition, a family locator app like MamaBear can let kids explore geographical boundaries allowing a parent to gauge where an intervention is necessary.

On the most basic level, a family locator app serves the basic function of tracking a child. With social location sharing and the utility of so many apps today, acceptance of the MamaBear app from our children shouldn’t be so uncommon. In addition, they may come to understand we’ll feel more comfortable allowing our kids to do a wider range of activities we may have otherwise found ‘too far’ or ‘too scary’ with the use of a family locator app. Knowing where our kids are when they’re camping, at an amusement park or on a day trip with friends can free up both sides of a parent and child’s relationship.

Upon the parent’s discretion, it can be a two-way street. The parent has the option of sharing their location with their children when they choose. This allows an easy way for kids to find their way to meet up with mom or dad. In addition, a quick press of the check-in or come get me button from the the child communicates immediately with the parent.

The times a family locator app like MamaBear can be the most invaluable are often the hardest ones for us as parents to consider, let alone discuss. In an emergency, a family tracking app can give parents and authorities an answer to a child’s current and recent location.

A family locator app like MamaBear gives parents options and reassures our trust. MamaBear can give us the reassurance we need to let our kids live a little, and can protect their lives in the worst case scenario. With availability on Android and iOS enabled smartphones, MamaBear represents a flexible alternative to family monitoring.

To learn more about the MamaBear family locator app watch the video below:

Download the MamaBear family locator app for Iphone

Download the MamaBear family locator app for Android

Happy New Year From MamaBear

Happy New Year from the MamaBear team! Well . . . do you have your New Year’s Resolutions planned?  They are so hard to stick to, right? It’s hard because it’s discipline. Ultimately, New Year’s resolutions are all about discipline and accountability. Working out when we say we’re going to work out. Skipping fries when we say we’re going to cut carbs. Consistency is hard to maintain with new habits. We’ve all broken a few resolutions here or there, and we all know how hard it can be to maintain constant discipline.

If we, as adults, have a hard time with discipline, it is no wonder that our kids battle with it just as much. It’s human nature to want to explore and push boundaries. I haven’t found a parent yet that says, “My kids do exactly what they are supposed to after being told just one time.” As many parents know, it’s about consistent reinforcement.

Obviously we feel that keeping a watchful eye on our children is a good idea – it’s why we created the MamaBear app in the first place. But remember, no one is perfect. Not us as parents and certainly not our children. If we can’t keep our own New Year’s resolutions every time, then maybe we can show some empathy when we feel overwhelmed by our words of repetitive discipline.

We encourage parents to use MamaBear as a tool to gather information. Information to have continued, relevant, consistent conversations about important issues like appropriate behavior on social media, why certain places are off limits and why accountability is important. It’s not hard to teach kids the importance of showing up for practice when they say they will. It just takes consistent reinforcement, even when a child strays a bit.

Going over the speed limit, visiting places we’d rather our kids not visit or perhaps taking a day off school without you knowing are ways boundaries could be tested. We all tested our boundaries growing up, now we have tools like MamaBear that give us vital information to talk about consequences. Tools to give our children consistent and empathetic dialog when they push against our boundaries in the New Year.  Make it a great 2013!