Ah. Remember these? Vintage Raptor! She was just 18 months in this pic, the same age as the babies are now, and I thought she was sooooo grown up. I thought it was hilarious that she swiped her friends “phone” and jumped in her brand new cozy coupe. (Side note: might need to look into getting one of these! I’ll bet it would blow Xander’s mind.) But the reality is that it’s kind of scary to think of Kate being old enough to drive, especially in the age of cell phones. Talk about things I’m not ready for!
I know that there are apps that you can use to track your teen’s location (I *might* have one on my phone that I’ve used a time or two when I’ve gotten hopelessly lost) but those always seemed kind of helicoptery to me. I mean, either you trust your kid or you don’t, right? (Friends with teenagers, feel free to point and laugh at my naiveté.) At the same time, the stakes are awfully high. Motor vehicles are the leading cause of death for 15-19 year olds in the United States. So even if you trust your teen, it would be super helpful to have some objective information to help them improve their driving, right?
Check this out. My brother-in-law and his wife created a product to do just that. I know this is a bit outside the realm of what I usually post about, but I think it’s a really cool product so you get to hear about it anyway. lol. Basically, you pop it in your car (it’s super easy to install; RaptorDad and I had tester units) and then it tracks data on your teen’s driving that you can access on your smart phone. Actual useful stuff like how hard your teen is breaking, or how fast they’re accelerating. It can also tell when your teen swerves a little, you know, like when they look at their phone or are messing with the radio. And it gives suggestions to actually improve your teen’s driving. Win win. I love that it’s framed as a positive with suggestions for improvement as opposed to a “gotcha” mentality where you’re just trying to catch your teen making a mistake.
Here’s a link to their kick starter campaign where they have a great video that explains more about the product and its features. I would love it if you would go check it out! The more safe drivers on the road, the better. In fact, maybe I should leave RaptorDad’s installed in his truck. 😉