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Using New Technology to Contact Loved Ones in a Disaster or Emergency Situation

The sickening tragedy in Boston has made the MamaBear app team pause and reflect on how thankful we are to go home every day to our families. It also makes us consider how vital it is for us to know where our family members are when disaster strikes. Disasters and emergency situations can evolve rapidly. When they do, standard communications simply aren’t good enough when we desperately need to check on the well-being of our loved ones.

Here are some technology pointers from a recent Wired article as well as our top tips to help communicate faster and easier when trying to locate family or share your location with family during an emergency situation:

1. Stay off the cell phone.

While calling is the obvious choice for many parents, rely on other types of communication during an emergency. The fact is calling doesn’t usually do very much good in most disaster situations. First responders need an open phone line into danger zones, and cellular service may be blacked out entirely due to interference. Calling over and over again can actively slow down rescue or relief efforts, while causing unnecessary stress as we wait.

Try to rely on a data connection and reach out through social, email or text if at all possible. Texting is almost always a better option than calling as it uses less data and can be far faster.

*But, it’s also important we remember a phone number, and teach our kids a phone number – don’t rely on saved contacts. Should you or your family get to a landline, know which number to dial by memory.

2. Conserve your battery.

  • Make sure you close out unnecessary apps running in the background – games, multiple social or location apps will use battery life. Only run necessary apps when needed – texting or locator apps. Mulitple apps running in the background will undoubtedly eat up battery life.
  • If you’re not firmly connected to a WiFi signal and your phone is constantly scanning for connection, turn off WiFi – reducing the constant scanning can help conserve.
  • You can also change some device settings – lower the brightness of your screen and reduce time lengths of screen lock.
  • Have a back-up. Use or carry a battery case and try to bring a charging cord with you as much as possible should you have access to outlets.

3. Apps are Your Friend in a Disaster.

Apps sometimes use entirely different communications protocols than standard digital options. It can be vital to teach our kids to use social media apps, and run locator apps like MamaBear during a disaster. Social media sites are monitored by thousands of users in disaster situations, and reaching out through social media apps is continuing to prove effective in a huge range of emergency and disaster situations. The MamaBear family monitoring app provides one touch options to check in with parents quickly and parents can share their location quickly with their children as well.

The MamaBear App works hard to protect our children and honor families everyday and our sense of urgency and importance becomes greater in emergency situations. Have a discussion with your family about what to do in an emergency situation and have a plan. Stay Safe.

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The MamaBear Family Monitoring App Can Help With Parental Anxiety About Teen Driving

anxiety about teen driving

It’s totally normal for parents to dread certain phases of their children’s development. It’s only normal that we fear letting our young ones out into the world and as they grow that anxiety can grow with the freedom our kids experience. A difficult and common one of these anxieties are when we first let our kids behind the wheel. The combination of an expensive automobile, a young and excited teenager, the very real risk of other drivers and a potential accident make us all understandably nervous about handing over the keys for the first time.

The good news is there are options to help significantly lower this anxiety. Options like the MamaBear family monitoring app can help ease parental anxiety when their teen is driving. The combination of MamaBear driving alerts, location alerts and nearly real time monitoring provides parents the ability to keep a much closer eye on a newly licensed teen. MamaBear lets parents know where they are going, and that they are obeying programmed speed limits.

The MamaBear location based alerts can inform a parent when their child is at a dangerous location or isn’t a place they are schedule to attend. This feature ensures that parents know their children are going to pre-approved locations. If a parent wants to monitor more frequently, active GPS monitoring can allow parents to watch an entire trip and confirm the kids are on route. Driving speed alerts give parents relevant information to talk to their children about vehicle responsibility and safe speed driving.

By providing parents with this nearly real-time data regarding location and vehicle speed, the MamaBear family monitoring app lets parents rest easy when the kids have the car. Many parents are reporting that the MamaBear app is facilitating conversations about car usage that they never expected to have. With MamaBear, a young driver can be trusted to run errands, help parents and even use the car for their own devices, all while allowing parents input and peace of mind about their teens’ driving habits.

The MamaBear app is available for download on Android devices here and Iphone devices here.

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Do you need a child tracking device to keep your kids safe?

track kids app

MamaBear presents an easy solution to parents who are curious about using a child tracking device. As long as GPS tracking has been available, parents have looked at it as a potential parenting solution in the form of child tracking devices. The market for a functional, effective and affordable child tracking device continues to expand. Key chains, bracelets, fobs that hang from backpacks are all viable versions of a child tracking device. The most recent wave of GPS advancement, particularly when it comes to smartphones, has given birth to apps making smartphones a popular, and effective, solution when parents want an easy child tracking device.

When GPS tracking technology first became commercially available, it still tended to be a little bulky. This made tracking anything require a large and extensive setup like a LoJack and was prohibitively expensive. As GPS technology got better, the average GPS tracker shrunk and the costs dropped. This gave parents the first wave of functional child tracking devices. Now a parent has several options for a child tracking device. Ultimately micro GPS technology has made smartphones an effective option to track our children.

Apps like MamaBear are cheaper than key fobs or GPS enabled accessories. With many children already receiving smartphones and at younger and younger ages, a child tracking app can turn any GPS enabled smartphone into a child tracking device. This means that parents can double the value of a phone, by saving parents from having to buy an additional GPS tracker.

Accessories and key fobs can easily be lost. Giving a child a smartphone for the first time with a pre-loaded GPS tracking app is a convincing argument to try the app out. Phones are also far less likely to be left behind or forgotten somewhere – what kid do you know with a cellphone that doesn’t have it attached to them at all times?

While there is certainly room in the growing market for alternate child tracking devices, we think that apps are by far the best option. The technology has pushed the GPS tracking market into existing cellphone technology, making it inexpensive you already plan on your children using a smartphone. Children are more likely to accept a child tracking device if it comes in the form of a new Android phone or iOS enabled device than a keychain or tracking bracelet. Children are also less likely to throw away a phone loaded with an app like MamaBear than they may be to lose a GPS bracelet or keychain dongle. MamaBear continues to push the technology and application further, by adding social media and location based alerts to standard GPS tracking. Today’s world presents bigger risks for our kids which means more responsibility for parents. Let technology help.

MamaBear child tracking app is available on the iPhone here

MamaBear child tracking app is available on Android smartphones here

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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.