Kid Not Answering an iPhone? Play an Alarm!


Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share how I get my kid's attention when they aren't answering their iPhone.

We have all been there, right?  Sitting outside of school or outside their friend's house, calling and calling and calling.  One time I was supposed to pick my son up from sledding.  I started calling when I arrived, I had no idea where he was was, so I sat there for over 30 minutes steaming because he wasn't paying attention to his phone.  It's aggravating since 80% of why parents give their kids a phone in the first place is so that we can get in touch with them!  

So, what do I do when my kids don't pick up their phone after many, many tries?  I play an alarm on their phone that is impossible to ignore.  Here's how I do it.  I have a different Apple ID than both of my kids at this point.  However, they are both required to give me their log-in credentials to their accounts as part of the privilege of getting to use a phone.  I open up the Find My iPhone app on my phone, sign out from my account, and then log in using my child's credentials.

I then select the phone, hit Actions, and then hit Play Sound.  That Find My iPhone alarm keeps going until you do something to stop it.  So, if we assume that the reason they aren't answering is that they aren't paying attention to their phone, now you have their attention.  If they aren't answering because they don't feel like it, then I just play the sound over and over again until they are so irritated (or their friends are so irritated) that they eventually call me back.  

It's a little heavy handed, so I don't use it very often, but if I've been waiting for 30 minutes with no response, you better believe I'm setting off any alarm I can.  

And of course, there is also the more standard use for this.  If your kid loses their phone, you can play the alarm for them remotely.  I just did this recently when one of my kids thought they dropped their phone in the parking lot.  I must have played the alarm over and over again for like 15 minutes.  Turns out, it was in the movie theatre the whole time — I’m sure the other movie-going patrons were NOT amused. 

Let me know what you think!  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching.

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