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Comment by zainhoda | Hacker News Reader

I’m shocked that kids isn’t the number 1 answer. If I don’t have my kids within my line of sight, I need to have my phone accessible.

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Society needs less of this fear. Your kids are safe and if they weren't there is very little you can do in your location.

That's too broad of a statement to say with confidence Say, I left them with a friend and there's an accident, I'm still expecting to be contacted for Allergies and Medical History, and so I can make my way there

Having lived in a really unsafe enviroment, there's too many variables that people who live in safe places take for granted, Have you ever been followed by a car? or have you had a family member kidnapped? Calling the right person (Because local LEO wouldn't do enough until an actual crime had taken place, has saved me and my family more than once)

Your kids medical file contains that information and the emergency doctor is not going to call you for allergies information. You being as the hospital now or hours later is not important in an emergency unless you are also the doctor.

Your kid being followed in a car and kidnapped doesn't change because you are by your phone. If the police ignore you calling about a car following you the cell phone isn't going to help

In your situation I would trade in your cell for a gun. It gives you a fighting chance against kidnappers and I would not let my kids out without armed guards. Whatever protection a cell phone provides parents in the first world those benefits apply less in your situation.

I'm telling you, having had family followed, being able to call and coordinate people (Who may have guns) was the difference between my mom making it home and not

Allergies that weren't discovered in a medical setting aren't on file, I've had that happen to me

From a recent break in near my house, the only reason we could act timely, was because we called the owner, confirmed the house was supposed to be empty at that time, and then coordinated

Having dabbled with armed guards, unless you're high profile enough to keep a larger force, it tends to just put a bigger target on your back

> Your kids medical file contains that information and the emergency doctor is not going to call you for allergies information.

Kid's medical file is on a computer in the pediatrician's office. Kid gets taken to an ER at a hospital with which the pediatrician is not in any way affiliated. How does the emergency doctor quickly get the kid's records? Can the emergency doctor even find out what pediatrician the kid goes to unless a parent tells them?

I personally don't go that far — for a long time before cell phones, people trusted babysitters with their children — but in that era, it was customary for the venue to have a phone number and the parents to write it down for the babysitter in the event of an emergency.

I completely agree and am surprised at the responses to your comment.

Personally, I'm waiting on a call about an adoption, and I can't ever leave my phone until that goes through. Even before cell phones, parents would leave a number for the babysitter for where they'd be. Yes, kids were raised without phones before, but I'm sure it wasn't a better situation when parents got home and found a note that their kid had to go to the hospital or something. People may say this is fear-mongering, but I guess they don't have kids with health issues.

If you don't want to be distracted, there are features like Screen Time that can lock you out of every app except phone and messages if you want.

Because yeah, before cellphones there were no parents. Nobody in human history has ever solved this parenting-without-cellphones problem before.

This the correct response, but not appropriate in tone for this forum.

People also had children before vaccines were invented. That doesn’t mean it’s okay not to vaccinate your kids.

Why? We were all kids before smartphones were invented and our parents were fine.

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