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Eric Hall
- Krista Hall, 33, tracks her mom’s location.
- Krista’s mom, Ann Schwartz, 68, also tracks Krista’s location.
- Krista doesn’t track her mom daily, but having her mom’s location helps her ensure her mom is safe.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Krista Hall. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I live about 45 minutes away from my parents now and still visit them often, but from 2011 to 2015, I lived only about 5-10 minutes away. If sirens sounded near any of our homes, we’d always be like, “Hey, you OK? Everybody good?” That’s the kind of family we are. I track my mom’s location because I want to know she’s safe.
My mom is 68, and she has always been a really great mom. Growing up, she was always very much a parent and tougher on me than my dad. But she also did a great job balancing being a friend and a parent. My dad is a pilot, so although he still found ways to be heavily involved in my life, when he was gone my mom was almost acting in the single parent role. We’re still very close today.
I first started using the Apple app “Find My,” which was then called “Find My Friends,” around 2014. I initiated downloading the app with my mom. At the time, my dad’s work required them to move out of state after I graduated from college, and I just said, “Well, I need to know where you are.”
We’ve jokingly tried to get my dad to join our family tracking system. I said, “You can see my location if I can see yours.” But he doesn’t like that kind of thing.
I don’t check my mom’s location all the time
I’m an only child, so it’s just me and my mom who use the “Find My” app to track each other’s location. I’m sure my mom tracks my location pretty often — although I can live without knowing exactly how frequently she does. I only take a look at her location if my parents are traveling somewhere, or something seems off.
For example, my parents were traveling this weekend, and they were supposed to get to their destination at 1 a.m. It was nice to wake up in the morning and see them safely at their hotel. Checking the app eliminated the need for me to wonder whether something had happened, and I didn’t need to reach out to say “Hey, did you get in OK?”
My mom has cancer and is receiving treatment for it. She also has some mobility issues, so she’s not traveling a ton of places at this stage in her life. But one time, my parents were supposed to watch my son, and I realized my mom’s appointment was running really long. I looked for her location in the Find My app and discovered she was on the other side of the hospital complex in the ER.
I hadn’t heard back from them, and when I checked again about half an hour later, I noticed she was still there. I thought that was weird, so I texted my dad to ask, “Is something going on?” She was fine, but she had fallen at the hospital, and they moved her to the ER from her regular appointment to check her out and make sure everything was OK.
My mom has used my location to check in with me and my son
Another time, I was on a trip with my son when he tripped and cut his head. My mom noticed we were at an urgent care and she reached out to ask what was going on. I didn’t have to call her to explain what happened because she already knew we were there. I explained he was fine and just needed stitches.
There was one time when I hadn’t heard from my mom all day during her more active cancer treatments. I reached out to my dad to ask if he’d heard from her, and we had a miscommunication — he thought I was asking if he’d heard from her in the last hour, and I thought he was saying he hadn’t heard from her since he left for work in the morning. Her location showed she was home, so I knew she wasn’t with friends. I drove over to make sure she was OK and hadn’t fallen or injured herself in any way. It turned out she was on hold for a call and didn’t want to lose her place in line while I was trying to call.
But overall, being able to track my mom’s phone alleviates anxiety for me. If something seems off and my mom’s not answering her phone, I can easily check her location. I usually don’t have to take that extra step of physically checking in.
My son is 2 years old, so tracking his location is not even a conversation yet. But when he can drive, at maybe around 16 or 17, I would consider using a tracking app like “Find My,” just to make sure he’s safe. Depending on how old a child is, I don’t care what they do. I just want to make sure they make it home at night.
Mentally, there’s a switch in your 30s and 40s with your parents, where it really does go from a feeling that they’re taking care of you, to feeling like you’re taking care of them.
