Disclosure: Paid partnership in return for an honest review
When Paj got in touch and asked me if I would like to try out their GPS tracker for children, which can also be used as a GPS vehicle tracker, I jumped at the chance. I’ve always wondered how well they work, and if they’re worth it. Arthur is now wanting a little more independence too so the timing was perfect. I’ve been given a 6 month subscription to the tracker, which I’ve been testing and will give you a little more info below…but first, back to the story of how we (thought) we’d lost Arthur when he was 3 years old…
I can’t remember what day of the week it was, probably a weekend as both Thomas and I were at home. It was early afternoon and we’d decided to have a ‘clear out’ of stuff from the loft and spare room. Charlotte was a baby at the time and so we popped her in a bouncer, Arthur was playing in his room and we were going back and forth to the car to load it up ready to transport some recycling to the local tip. All of a sudden I heard a child scream outside, my initial thought was that it was Arthur and in a panic I ran to the window! I was relieved to see it was just the neighbour’s child playing in their garden, but as I looked out of Arthur’s bedroom window I suddenly realised that he wasn’t there…and I hadn’t heard him for a while….
“Arthur?” I shouted. No reply. Thomas and i ran up and down the stairs, calling his name, checking every room and there was nothing. I stood next to his bed and shouted as loud as I could and then listened…still nothing. I felt sick. Arthur was at that age where he was terrible at hide and seek - we’d played it the week before and he’d always laugh or shout “I’m here” from his hiding place, but today there was only silence. Thomas dashed out of the house and noticed the gate was open…we had no idea if it was open when we were putting things in the car or if Arthur had opened it and got out. I strapped Charlotte into her baby carrier and ran up and down our street calling his name. Thomas ran out to the main road and went back and forth looking for him but there was no sign of him.
The tracker has 4G technology and shows you the exact street on the map where it is located. It also shows you any ‘journey’ you have taken and uses arrows to show the direction of travel too. We decided to give it a go once we got home as Arthur had arranged to go over to a friend’s house who lives on the next street. I showed him where the SOS button was and he zipped the tracker into his pocket and set off.
I noticed that there was a slight delay in picking up Arthur’s journey. It took 5 mins for the tracker to start tracking Arthur’s movements from our house to his friends house but once it started moving it was pretty accurate in showing where he had gone. I could also tell from the tracker when he had gone to play in their back garden and moved from one side of their house to the other. When Arthur returned home, it was a further 5 mins before the tracker showed that he had travelled back. I’m not sure if this delay is due to our location and signal where we live (phone reception for example is shocking) but I decided to test out the SOS button to see how this did. I placed the tracker next to my phone and held down the sos button for 3 seconds. Again, it took 5 minutes before the alert was sent. I’d previously added my email address for alerts, but as I don’t have these on push notifications I also set up alerts in the app. I noticed that the alert time in the app was the time that the alert was sent to me, and not the time that the button was pressed so it seems that the delay is in sending the message from the GPS tracker to the online system.
In conclusion, it’s brilliant for showing exactly where your child has been - the routes they have taken, direction of travel etc. it would be better if there was no delay, as I feel a lot can happen in 5 mins - but it does depend on what you’re using the tracker for. This could be zipped into a handbag for example, or luggage, so that you can locate it if it gets lost or stolen. It could also be kept in the glove box or similar compartment within your car, so that your car can be tracked too. It does come with a little drawstring bag, but I think I’d prefer to have some sort of fasten or attachment on the device itself just in case you don’t have zipped pockets to keep it safe.
“Arthur?” I shouted. No reply. Thomas and i ran up and down the stairs, calling his name, checking every room and there was nothing. I stood next to his bed and shouted as loud as I could and then listened…still nothing. I felt sick. Arthur was at that age where he was terrible at hide and seek - we’d played it the week before and he’d always laugh or shout “I’m here” from his hiding place, but today there was only silence. Thomas dashed out of the house and noticed the gate was open…we had no idea if it was open when we were putting things in the car or if Arthur had opened it and got out. I strapped Charlotte into her baby carrier and ran up and down our street calling his name. Thomas ran out to the main road and went back and forth looking for him but there was no sign of him.
I decided to call 999 and alert them that our child was missing.
Half way through the call, the phone cut off. As I started to call back I heard Thomas (who had gone back into the house for another look) scream “NOOOO!” Loudly…I didn’t dare go in the house, what had he found?
My mind was racing, imagining all of the things that could have happened to Arthur, when suddenly there he was - stood at the bottom of the stairs crying. It turns out, he’d suddenly become an absolute master at hide and seek, and he’d bunched up his duvet along the wall side of his bed, laid down flat and hidden underneath it! I was stood right next to his bed when I called him and I had NO idea he was there. The relief actually made me feel nauseous. Thomas’ previous shouting of ‘no’ was simply an emotional outburst upon realising that Arthur thought this was all a funny game - he was simply unable to articulate in that moment that he didn’t find it funny, and he was terrified of losing him.
I managed to get back through to the police who told me that they still had to come and check everything was okay as they had already dispatched an officer who was currently blue lighting his way over. When the officer arrived, I felt so embarrassed to tell him that we’d actually just lost our child in our own house! He did a check of the house and had a little chat with Arthur to make sure everything was okay, and then reassured us that we did the right thing in calling regardless, because the sooner they can get out there looking for a child the more chance they have of a better outcome. They won’t ever be mad if it ends up being a genuine false alarm, just relieved.
I’m sure some of us have similar stories of losing our children on days out, whilst shopping, or even getting lost ourselves as a child (I know I did once!) so we decided to take the GPS tracker with us when we travelled back to Notts for my Nanna’s funeral. I’d booked to take the children to Sundown Adventure Land the day after, in order to give them a ‘nice memory’ of the occasion. I knew from going there as a child myself that there was so much to explore, it would be easy for them to run off in one direction and get lost.
The morning of going to Sundown however, I couldn’t find the tracker anywhere! Luckily I’d already set it up on my phone via the app and also the website (you can use either, but i find the app more convenient) so I was hoping this might help me work out where I had put it!
Oops - the tracker was still showing as being at our address at home! At least I didn’t waste any more time looking for it, so our first experience was not in finding a lost a child but finding a lost tracker! In the chaos of packing for the funeral I'd left it behind.
I’m sure some of us have similar stories of losing our children on days out, whilst shopping, or even getting lost ourselves as a child (I know I did once!) so we decided to take the GPS tracker with us when we travelled back to Notts for my Nanna’s funeral. I’d booked to take the children to Sundown Adventure Land the day after, in order to give them a ‘nice memory’ of the occasion. I knew from going there as a child myself that there was so much to explore, it would be easy for them to run off in one direction and get lost.
The morning of going to Sundown however, I couldn’t find the tracker anywhere! Luckily I’d already set it up on my phone via the app and also the website (you can use either, but i find the app more convenient) so I was hoping this might help me work out where I had put it!
Oops - the tracker was still showing as being at our address at home! At least I didn’t waste any more time looking for it, so our first experience was not in finding a lost a child but finding a lost tracker! In the chaos of packing for the funeral I'd left it behind.
The tracker has 4G technology and shows you the exact street on the map where it is located. It also shows you any ‘journey’ you have taken and uses arrows to show the direction of travel too. We decided to give it a go once we got home as Arthur had arranged to go over to a friend’s house who lives on the next street. I showed him where the SOS button was and he zipped the tracker into his pocket and set off.
I noticed that there was a slight delay in picking up Arthur’s journey. It took 5 mins for the tracker to start tracking Arthur’s movements from our house to his friends house but once it started moving it was pretty accurate in showing where he had gone. I could also tell from the tracker when he had gone to play in their back garden and moved from one side of their house to the other. When Arthur returned home, it was a further 5 mins before the tracker showed that he had travelled back. I’m not sure if this delay is due to our location and signal where we live (phone reception for example is shocking) but I decided to test out the SOS button to see how this did. I placed the tracker next to my phone and held down the sos button for 3 seconds. Again, it took 5 minutes before the alert was sent. I’d previously added my email address for alerts, but as I don’t have these on push notifications I also set up alerts in the app. I noticed that the alert time in the app was the time that the alert was sent to me, and not the time that the button was pressed so it seems that the delay is in sending the message from the GPS tracker to the online system.
In conclusion, it’s brilliant for showing exactly where your child has been - the routes they have taken, direction of travel etc. it would be better if there was no delay, as I feel a lot can happen in 5 mins - but it does depend on what you’re using the tracker for. This could be zipped into a handbag for example, or luggage, so that you can locate it if it gets lost or stolen. It could also be kept in the glove box or similar compartment within your car, so that your car can be tracked too. It does come with a little drawstring bag, but I think I’d prefer to have some sort of fasten or attachment on the device itself just in case you don’t have zipped pockets to keep it safe.