My Secret to Locking Up My Kid's Phone
Hi, everyone! This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and today I'm going to share my secret for how I lock up my kid's cell phone.
Here's the scenario -- you've grounded your kid and taken away their phone. Now - what do you do with the phone? With some kids you might be able to keep it in plain sight with a stern warning not to touch it. That definitely did not work with my son. It's possible that he started out with good intentions, but it was just too tempting to have a quick look if he happened to see a notification flash up on the lock screen. And then the phone was back in his hands again. Cue a giant mother-son screaming match.
So, I took to hiding the phone. And it became this somewhat elaborate game of hide and seek. There were 2 problems to this: 1) it took creativity and mental energy to come up with new hiding spots and 2) sometimes my hiding spot was so good that I would actually forget where I put the phone. That was fine if it was just for one day, since I could use Find My iPhone to find it, but if I was any longer, the phone would run out of juice and we would have a lost phone. This didn't help the general mood in the house.
I needed a different solution. I have a friend who has a big combination safe in one of her kitchen cabinets where she locks things up. That sounded okay, but I wanted to have a solution that also worked for overnight phone storage and that meant my solution that would also have to be able to charge the phones.
So, here's what I did. I think I was at Office Depot when I stumbled upon a soft-sided pouch with a combination lock on it. I'm not even sure what it is for, but it is called a Locking Tool Pouch. This is my second iteration and is the small size. They also sell one that is big enough to fit a full sized iPad. I'm not crazy about this pattern, but I must not have had many other options. There is one in black through Amazon.com. The link is also in the description of this video.
So, here's what I did. I took a knife and carefully cut a small hole in the side of the pouch. Then I fed through 2 short charger cords like this and plugged them in. Now I keep this on the counter behind my computer. I can dock my kids cell phones up at night without having to check repeatedly. And I can take their phones away without having to remember where I hid them. This is also not a bad place to store cash. I get my "teen cash" from the bank in $5 bills and keep it in an envelope in this pouch. That way I can subtract it from their allowance as I dole it out. Otherwise, it has a way of just disappearing without being recorded.
It's not a burglar-proof safe obviously. Depending on your kid's willingness to break the rules, they could cut the side with a knife or use enough force on the lock to damage it -- the latter reason is why I am on my second iteration. But it provides just enough security to work for most kids.
Let me know what you think! Leave questions, experiences and thoughts in the comments section. And thanks for watching!
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