I never tracked my teenagers on an app. Our relationships are better for it.

The author, shown with her two kids when they were younger, said she knew she never wanted to use an app to track their whereabouts. Courtesy of Heather Sweeney Unlike most of the parents in my circles, I opted out of tracking my teens on apps. Instead, I value face-to-face conversations or texts for family communication. My kids are 18 and 22, and I think the trust we've built has made our relationships stronger. When I first heard of Life360, my first thought was that I knew I never wanted to use the app to track my two kids , despite its popularity among parents. Almost a decade later, I still feel the same. But it wasn't until my oldest got his driver's license in 2020 that I realized my decision to opt out of this trend was helping to build trust with my teenager.