Parenting & Kids

The Toddler Tag: a Field Test

We recently enjoyed some “zen” time on vacation in Orlando. Since our trip occurred during school spring break, we were concerned about crowds. In particular, losing one of our kids in crowded theme parks like Sea World or Legoland. Enter the Toddler Tag Child Locator.

Where’s My Kid?

Your child wears a small device that is paired to another small device that the parent wears, attaches to a key chain or in our case, straps to a stroller.

Toddler Tag Child Locator

The Toddler Tag does two things.

Electronic Wander Alert: If your child wanders more than 30 feet from the parent transmitter, the transmitter will sound an alert notification, letting you know that someone is playing hide-and-seek.

One-touch Locator: If you look around and can’t find your child, push a button on your transmitter and up to 150 feet away, your child’s tag will sound a series of high-decibel beeps, helping reunite the two of you.

Field Test Report

Our son Brian wore the Toddler Tag willingly, the velcro strap secured to his belt loop. Daughter Avery, two, had strong objections however. We tried to attach it to her sandal, but she was just not having it. For her it will have to wait until she’s older and more compliant.

Overall, I thought the $40 was worth the extra piece of mind, especially as we navigated some pretty thick crowds. We were still vigilant as to their whereabouts, but when I couldn’t locate Brian quickly it was a relief to press a button and find him right away. That oh-no-I-can’t-find-my-child feeling can be pretty queasy.

Temporary Mute

The one thing I wish it had was a “mute” option. For example in Legoland, there were several enclosed play areas where we could let the kids roam safely while we watched from a bench nearby.

If we turned off our parent unit to keep it quiet, we had to later turn off the child device as well and “re-pair” them again. Minor, but with all the chaos of the day I would sometimes forget to re-pair the tags. A temporary mute option would be useful.

To avoid the risk of forgetting to “un-mute” it later, maybe the mute function could time out after 15 or so minutes, prompting the parent to restore the mute or go back to regular functioning.

Where To Get One

The Toddler Tag attracted a lot of attention from other parents, curious as to what it was and, where could they get one? Brickhouse Security sells the tags for $39.95 a set. There is no monthly service fee and Brickhouse offers lifetime technical support for the product.

I think we will definitely get more use out of our tags over the next few years!

2 Comments

  1. karen cohen

    03/07/2013 at 7:08 am

    Can I use this for my 16 year old? lol!!!

    1. Samantha

      03/09/2013 at 10:48 am

      Haha! You can borrow mine if you want to give it a go. Stick it in her backpack maybe she won’t notice!

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