WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SON CHANGED HOW I LET HIM WALK HOME FROM SCHOOL My son Alfie is eight. He’d been walking home from school on his own since he was seven. Takes him eight minutes, two roads, one crossing with a lollipop lady. We practised it together for weeks. He’s usually through the door by 3:25. One day I was busy with something and when I looked up at the clock it was already 3:42. He was seventeen minutes late and I hadn’t noticed. I rang the two mums whose numbers I had but neither of them had seen him. I stood at the end of our road looking down it, trying to work out how much longer I’d wait before I started properly panicking. He came round the corner at 3:48. He’d stopped at his friend Ollie’s gate to look at a lizard. That was it. Nothing bad happened. But I’d just spent six minutes with no idea where my child was and no way of finding out. Of course the problem wasn’t Alfie looking at a lizard. He has all the right in the world to be a curious child. The problem was that for six minutes I had no idea if he was okay. He’d asked at Christmas and again at his birthday, and I said no both times. Half his class has one, apparently, which I don’t doubt, but still… Group chats at eight years old, can you imagine? YouTube at bedtime. God, all the strangers he could chat with! But saying no left exactly the problem I’d just fallen into. No way to reach him. No way to find him. No way for him to call if something’s wrong. Her name is Amara and I asked her mum about it. It looked like a chunky kids’ watch. Blue silicone strap, small square screen. It’s a phone, sort of. It makes calls and takes calls, and it also shows her mum a map of where her daughter is. It has no browser and no way for anyone outside a short approved list to contact her. It’s called CubbyWatch. I ordered one that night and decided to test it. Amara’s mum had told me the watch doesn’t come with a SIM card. You put your own in. I ordered a cheap pay-as-you-go SIM at the same time I ordered the watch. It only needs a small data allowance because this isn’t a device that streams anything. Make sure it’s on EE, O2 or Vodafone, or one of the smaller networks that still run on 2G in the UK. Then it was just: Slot the SIM in. Download the app and set up an account. Scan the registration code on the back of the watch to pair it. Add your contacts. I put in me, my husband, and Alfie’s nan. All in about twenty minutes. Alfie then spent considerably longer than that convincing me to add his cousin’s number too so they could chat about Roblox. The things I do for this kid… I can see where my son is in about five seconds. I just open the app and there he is on a map. He rings me. I ring him. It’s a two-way call system. He doesn’t need a phone to do it. There’s an emergency button. One press sends his location to every emergency contact. You can set safe zones. Draw a boundary round the school or the park and you get an alert when he arrives or leaves. Only the ten people you approve can call him. He also can’t ring anyone who isn’t on the list. The watch lasts around three days on a two-hour charge. And he can’t switch it off (only the parent app can do that), so there’s no risk it shuts off by accident. Alfie calls me roughly ten times a day now. He can take photos on it too and he loves it. I can see that makes him feel like the watch is truly his and not something I strapped to him. ❌ Hand an eight-year-old the entire internet to solve a problem about a school run I’d looked at other watches before buying this one. They’re all good devices with great reviews. But they all work the same way: you buy the watch and then you pay the company every month, usually locked into a year’s contract, for as long as your child wears it. With a CubbyWatch you just buy a watch and then you choose your own pay-as-you-go SIM and you can swap it whenever you want. There’s no subscription, no activation fee. That’s the whole reason the SIM isn’t in the box. You’re not tied to anything. Our kids have far less freedom than we did. ⚠️ In 1971, 86% of primary school parents in England said their child was allowed to walk home from school alone. By 2010 it was 25%. I don’t think our children became less safe. I think we just became more frightened, and we took their freedom away to make ourselves feel better. Alfie still walks home on his own. He goes further than he used to and he asks permission for things I’d have said no to a year ago. Isn’t it ironic? I bought it because I was scared and what I got is a child with more freedom than ever. The company behind CubbyWatch has reached out to me following the publication of this article. They informed me that demand has been high in the last few months and that CubbyWatch has been selling out repeatedly. From what they told me, now first-time customers can get up to 75% off while stock lasts. Most parents I know went for the two-watch bundle, either because they have two children or because they bought one for a niece, a nephew or grandchild at the same time. As of * – From now on, CubbyWatch will only be sold directly by the company, with no shops and no middlemen taking a cut. I’m sure that’s what makes a discount this size possible and why you won’t find the watch cheaper anywhere else. The current offer is for first-time customers and it runs while stock lasts. NOTE: CubbyWatch is only sold through the official website now. It is NOT available on Amazon or eBay anymore.
I’d Already Said No To A Phone. Twice.
Alfie Told Me A Girl In His Class Has A Watch You Can Ring
Setting It Up Took 20 Minutes
I Summarised What This Watch Can Do
What I Didn’t Have To Do
❌ Spend hundreds on a phone he may forget on the bus or drop in a puddle
❌ Sign up to a monthly plan with the watch company
❌ Explain to teachers why my son has a phone in class, when phones aren’t even allowed
❌ Stand at the end of the road at 3:42 again, wondering if he’s okay
Now Alfie Wears It All The Time, Even Outside Of School
• Football training. I drop him off and go. He rings me when it finishes.
• The park with his friends. He’s allowed to go further now. That is not a small thing for a child. He feels more independent and I am not as anxious about it.
• His nan’s house. She’s on the approved list, so she can call him straight on his wrist, which she finds hilarious for some reason.
• Days out. Anywhere busy or unfamiliar. This is when I check the map most.I Checked Feedback From Other Parents
For Me CubbyWatch Is The Simplest Answer To “Where Are They?”
⚠️ In 1971, 55% of English under-10s were allowed to go places other than school on their own. By 2010, almost none were.⚠️ WARNING: CubbyWatch Stock Is Running Low In The UK
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My daughter has told literally everyone in her class that she has a phone now 😭