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HeadphoneAddict

macrumors 65816
Sep 16, 2007
1,041
888
Hi there! So I'm 21 years old and my very controlling parents track my phone religiously, so I have virtually no freedom. For example, I was just asked why I was out until 2am last night by my father and I live halfway across the country from them. Unfortunately, I am still financially dependent on my parents as I am still in school, so I don't have much room to not listen to them, and they require me to be on their family sharing and have my location shared with them at all times. Does anyone know a way that I can set my phone to show at a certain location? Thanks!

With you being a student who is financially dependent on them, I understand them wanting rules. But at 21 years old the location tracking should be voluntary, and at this age if you agree to let them track you then they should agree to shut it about where you've been.

I'm a parent with kids in college, and my tactic was to reward them for turning on tracking (pay for their gas, or something else) with the understanding that while I might feel better knowing where they are that I would never comment about their whereabouts.

We miss our kids sometimes, and it's reassuring to be able to look at them on the map, but we can't be tucking them in and watching over them 24/7. It's not right to hold my kids hostage by the phone to make them keep the tracking turned on, and it's also not right to hover over them so tightly as they move into adulthood.

The diplomatic way to handle this is to leave the phone in your room when you go out, and buy a cheap burner phone to use to call someone in case of emergency. But in the meantime have a down to earth talk with your parents about your concerns. Because if you take over your own cell phone plan, then your parents (the type who absolutely must track you) will likely come back at you for something else for which you should have been spending that money on instead (especially if that money came from them in the first place).
 

NT1440

macrumors Pentium
May 18, 2008
15,094
22,161
With you being a student who is financially dependent on them, I understand them wanting rules. But at 21 years old the location tracking should be voluntary, and at this age if you agree to let them track you then they should agree to shut it about where you've been.

I'm a parent with kids in college, and my tactic was to reward them for turning on tracking (pay for their gas, or something else) with the understanding that while I might feel better knowing where they are that I would never comment about their whereabouts.

We miss our kids sometimes, and it's reassuring to be able to look at them on the map, but we can't be tucking them in and watching over them 24/7. It's not right to hold my kids hostage by the phone to make them keep the tracking turned on, and it's also not right to hover over them so tightly as they move into adulthood.

The diplomatic way to handle this is to leave the phone in your room when you go out, and buy a cheap burner phone to use to call someone in case of emergency. But in the meantime have a down to earth talk with your parents about your concerns. Because if you take over your own cell phone plan, then your parents (the type who absolutely must track you) will likely come back at you for something else for which you should have been spending that money on instead (especially if that money came from them in the first place).
Hey look at this, a reasonable parent who doesn’t have the condescending tone of a bygone era where it was actually possible to pay for school, have a social life,and have a job at the same time! Good on you.

My advice to the OP, being someone almost 10 years older is to see if a part time job is possible with your school workload (and having a life, otherwise what’s the point? You’ll get to live the soul crushing reality of the working world soon enough so make some college memories responsibly while you can) and just move off their plan.

If they protest, then you have some acknowledgement that they really just want to helicopter parent you rather than this being some type of agreement.
 

HeadphoneAddict

macrumors 65816
Sep 16, 2007
1,041
888
Hey look at this, a reasonable parent who doesn’t have the condescending tone of a bygone era where it was actually possible to pay for school, have a social life,and have a job at the same time! Good on you.

My advice to the OP, being someone almost 10 years older is to see if a part time job is possible with your school workload (and having a life, otherwise what’s the point? You’ll get to live the soul crushing reality of the working world soon enough so make some college memories responsibly while you can) and just move off their plan.

If they protest, then you have some acknowledgement that they really just want to helicopter parent you rather than this being some type of agreement.

[TL;DR version]
That's another good idea - a job during school. My 3 kids have all worked during college, and helped out with the costs (in additional to a few small student loans). However, I'm fairly sure already that the parents really just want to helicopter parent.

I think that many times a student struggles too hard to juggle school and job, and can't get the grades they need to apply for a certain graduate or professional school. But even a small job that pays for a cell phone plan could be simply dog walking a few times a month without hurting grades.

In my case I delivered pizza in college for a while, and then worked in the school print shop (flyers, pamphlets, and football game programs, etc). In medical school I worked in the school library where I could study while at work.
[/stop]

[Continue at your own risk]
My oldest daughter went to Duke a few years back, and she was in a work study program. She learned a lot in the two jobs over 4 years - one of them was quite useful to her degree and for getting experience that helped her get a job upon graduation. She actually knew how to do the job she was hired for, without needing additional training (program development and grant applications for a non-profit).

My Middle daughter was a little overwhelmed in her first year and lived on our money and her student loans, but then started working her last 3 years. She started out woking in fast food before getting a part-time job at a rehabilitation facility in her last 2 years of school. That job came in handy when she graduated, applied to, and was accepted to an occupational therapy doctorate program that starts next month.

My son is a junior in college and was also overwhelmed the first year, but in his second year he started working as an RA in the dorms. That job is more time consuming and demanding than we expected, and his grades have suffered some (down from a 3.6 to still just above 3.0), but he loves the job and wants to keep doing it. He wants to pursue a masters degree in biomedical engineering, so he doesn't need a 3.8+ GPA like those applying to medical school.

To quote a wise man, "back in the old days" going to college cost quite a bit less, and you could work to pay for college and still have time to study. In the early 80's I paid about $400 a semester for tuition and $400 for books, plus $300/mo for room and board. It cost about $5-6K/yr total expenses for my first year of college, and I was making more than that delivering pizza 16-20 hours a week on a motorcycle with luggage rack in my second year. But my first year was so overwhelming that I drained my savings account because I didn't have time to work, and my parents could only afford to pay for about half of my school expenses.

By the end of medical school in 1988 I had $60,000 in student loans. And 20 years ago, when we started planning a college fund, it was about $10,000/yr for a state school with room and board. But now a state college costs over $25,000 per year with tuition, room/board, books and other living expenses. A doctorate post-grad program runs about $60,000 per YEAR now (as does a year at Duke undergraduate program).

Finances are much more challenging for students these days, unless you go to Duke where the student only pays the EFC (expected family contribution) + $5K Direct Loan + $2K work study program. If the parents have no money or the student is independent, then the student only has to work a few hours a week and pay back a few small loans.
[/whew!]
 

NT1440

macrumors Pentium
May 18, 2008
15,094
22,161
[TL;DR version]
That's another good idea - a job during school. My 3 kids have all worked during college, and helped out with the costs (in additional to a few small student loans). However, I'm fairly sure already that the parents really just want to helicopter parent.

I think that many times a student struggles too hard to juggle school and job, and can't get the grades they need to apply for a certain graduate or professional school. But even a small job that pays for a cell phone plan could be simply dog walking a few times a month without hurting grades.

In my case I delivered pizza in college for a while, and then worked in the school print shop (flyers, pamphlets, and football game programs, etc). In medical school I worked in the school library where I could study while at work.
[/stop]

[Continue at your own risk]
My oldest daughter went to Duke a few years back, and she was in a work study program. She learned a lot in the two jobs over 4 years - one of them was quite useful to her degree and for getting experience that helped her get a job upon graduation. She actually knew how to do the job she was hired for, without needing additional training (program development and grant applications for a non-profit).

My Middle daughter was a little overwhelmed in her first year and lived on our money and her student loans, but then started working her last 3 years. She started out woking in fast food before getting a part-time job at a rehabilitation facility in her last 2 years of school. That job came in handy when she graduated, applied to, and was accepted to an occupational therapy doctorate program that starts next month.

My son is a junior in college and was also overwhelmed the first year, but in his second year he started working as an RA in the dorms. That job is more time consuming and demanding than we expected, and his grades have suffered some (down from a 3.6 to still just above 3.0), but he loves the job and wants to keep doing it. He wants to pursue a masters degree in biomedical engineering, so he doesn't need a 3.8+ GPA like those applying to medical school.

To quote a wise man, "back in the old days" going to college cost quite a bit less, and you could work to pay for college and still have time to study. In the early 80's I paid about $400 a semester for tuition and $400 for books, plus $300/mo for room and board. It cost about $5-6K/yr total expenses for my first year of college, and I was making more than that delivering pizza 16-20 hours a week on a motorcycle with luggage rack in my second year. But my first year was so overwhelming that I drained my savings account because I didn't have time to work, and my parents could only afford to pay for about half of my school expenses.

By the end of medical school in 1988 I had $60,000 in student loans. And 20 years ago, when we started planning a college fund, it was about $10,000/yr for a state school with room and board. But now a state college costs over $25,000 per year with tuition, room/board, books and other living expenses. A doctorate post-grad program runs about $60,000 per YEAR now (as does a year at Duke undergraduate program).

Finances are much more challenging for students these days, unless you go to Duke where the student only pays the EFC (expected family contribution) + $5K Direct Loan + $2K work study program. If the parents have no money or the student is independent, then the student only has to work a few hours a week and pay back a few small loans.
[/whew!]
This guy actually understands how dramatically the costs have risen since his time in college, what the excuse for those of you still insisting that your experience from the 70’s is still how it works?
 

cyclingplatypus

macrumors 65816
Mar 15, 2007
1,117
237
Earth
I bet they saw that he started this thread and grounded him.

"We saw that thread you started on the macrumors..." I bet it started like that.
 

turbineseaplane

macrumors P6
Mar 19, 2008
17,472
40,331
I think I'd maybe buy my own device if this were happening to me..
Even if a lesser model that's far less expensive - the price of "not being tracked" is worth it to me.
 

BugeyeSTI

macrumors 604
Aug 19, 2017
7,244
9,089
Arizona/Illinois
Thanks for the assistance, Bugeye. I haven’t been jailbreaking my iDevices for a while now. That’s great, though, that it continues. For some time, it looked like there would never be an iOS 11 JB and even the iOS 10 JBs were difficult.
First time for me, my backup phone (6s) was still on 12.1.1 so I jailbroke it yesterday. It was actually very easy and I’ve been slowly adding tweeks as they become available. I don’t think I’d run it on my daily driver but it’s fun to see what’s possible. It’s much more stable than I expected..
 
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mynameisrach

macrumors newbie
Apr 8, 2019
1
0
If you have another Apple device you can change which device your location is shared from (i.e. share your location from the iPad that you leave at home while you go out and do whatever with your iPhone). The better option would be to have a sit down with your parents and discuss your issues with their constant supervision.

I have an old phone that I tried do that with. But, if I try to set it to my other phone’s location it’ll just show up on my parent’s phone as “location not available” & I’ll get a call from them asking why it’s turned off. It doesn’t have any service but works on WiFi. Do you know why it may not be working?
 

HeadphoneAddict

macrumors 65816
Sep 16, 2007
1,041
888
I have an old phone that I tried do that with. But, if I try to set it to my other phone’s location it’ll just show up on my parent’s phone as “location not available” & I’ll get a call from them asking why it’s turned off. It doesn’t have any service but works on WiFi. Do you know why it may not be working?

Are your parents using "find my friends" or "find my iPhone"?

Can you find a way to feed Prozac into their water supply?
[doublepost=1554786724][/doublepost]PS: I know that "find my iPhone" will accurately find all devices on cellular and wifi, so I suspect they are not using that, but are using "Find my Friends" so they only see the device you allow them to see and they don't know which device that is.

I don't know if find my friends can locate a device that is on wifi only. It should though, but maybe an iPhone needs to have a good GPS signal, while a wifi iPad or Mac only needs wifi for location services?

You should have a burner phone to take with you, leave your iPhone at your dorm, and forward calls to your burner phone.

And if you have an iPhone or iPad on wifi while you are out, you can make wifi FaceTime audio calls from that device with your regular phone number as the caller ID, and they'll never know you aren't on your phone.
 

pajarococo

macrumors newbie
Jun 11, 2019
1
0
Hi there! So I'm 21 years old and my very controlling parents track my phone religiously, so I have virtually no freedom. For example, I was just asked why I was out until 2am last night by my father and I live halfway across the country from them. Unfortunately, I am still financially dependent on my parents as I am still in school, so I don't have much room to not listen to them, and they require me to be on their family sharing and have my location shared with them at all times. Does anyone know a way that I can set my phone to show at a certain location? Thanks!

If you have both Apple watch w Cellular + Iphone and you are out of range between both devices the location that will be shared with your friends in the Find my Friends App will be the Apple Watch instead of the Iphone as long as the watch is in yours or someone else's wrist.

So if you want to trick your followers and still receive/make calls is as simple of just asking someone to wear your watch in X place (your house or office) while you take your phone with you, this way your followers will see you in X place while you really are in another.

#trickfindmyfriends #applewatch #findmyfriends
 

Ciaoitalia

macrumors newbie
Oct 29, 2019
1
0
Thanks for the assistance, Bugeye. I haven’t been jailbreaking my iDevices for a while now. That’s great, though, that it continues. For some time, it looked like there would never be an iOS 11 JB and even the iOS 10 JBs were difficult.
Yo! How do you do JB an iPhone 8?? I need this now to make my location be somewhere els.
 
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