Lessons learned in quest for a missing iPod

I am sure am glad there are still honest people out there. Over the Christmas break, my 8-year-old daughter somehow lost her iPod Touch and was heartbroken. She bought it over the summer with her own money and had been pretty careful with it.

That was until this one busy day. My two girls and I were in and out of the car a lot. We had to drop one of their friend’s home after she spent the night, we had to drop my youngest daughter off at a birthday party, we went out to a restaurant for lunch and than went to the mall. Somewhere in there my daughter lost her iPod, but we didn’t even realize she lost it until later that night when she couldn’t find it.

She just broke down and sobbed. We went over the whole day and tried to figure out where it could have been? Did she lose it? Was it stolen out of the car? Did she even bring it with her or was it somewhere at home? All these questions were going through my mind? My daughter couldn’t remember exactly what happened, but she did know she had it with her in the car. So, I started calling the places we had been, leaving my number just in case it was left at a store.

That night my husband and I had to have a talk with our daughter and tell her she needed to be more responsible with her things. We told we didn’t want her to worry any more because there wasn’t anything we could do. It was gone.

My daughter was OK and stopped crying. She was still sad, but knew there wasn’t anything we could do.

As a mom, I still wanted to figure out at least what happened? I knew how much that iPod meant to her because she had saved for a long time to get it. I kept thinking about what could have happened. Than it hit me late that night…when she was getting out of the car while dropping off my other daughter at the birthday, her friend ran up to her to gave her a hug. She must have dropped it in the lawn.

The next morning, I called my friend who had the birthday. She said there was a man and his little boy walking their dog and the son found an iPod. They asked my friend’s husband if it was his kids and he told them no. He didn’t realize my daughter dropped her iPod.

I asked my friend if she knew the person who found the iPod and told me she thought she knew where he lived. Since they didn’t live to far from us, my husband and I drove to the house to see if they still had the iPod.

My mind was racing thinking it had been less than 24 hours, but still they could have sold it or pawned it. It’s worth about $200.  We got to the house and he wasn’t home, but lady at the house said she knew he had the iPod and when he got home they would call us so we could pick it up. My mind was relieved. We were going to get the iPod back.

We explained to our daughter that these people were nice and honest, because they could have just kept her iPod for themselves. We told her she should give the boy who found it a reward. She decided to give him a reward with her own money.

I also reminded her of a time not to long ago - before she bought her iPod - when we realized someone had left their iPod at our table in the mall food court. We were honest and didn’t take it, turning it into security, so the person who lost it could get it back. I told her when you do the right thing it comes back to you.

We were very fortunate that the boy and his dad are good people. Thanks again for doing the right thing! You made my daughter so happy and rekindled my faith in people.

 

Tip: If you have an electronic device you can usually click on an app that can help you locate your device. Example is Find My Ipod. You can also put a sticker on your iPod with a phone number to call in case you lose it.

 

If you have an iPod or any other Mac device click here for more information on how to find your device

Kids Learning the Value of Money

This summer has gone by way to fast. In just a few days, school starts back up for my two girls. I can’t believe it. This summer, I wanted to teach my kids ages 6 and 7, the value of money and what it costs to buy items they want.

The girls have been collecting money in their piggy banks since they have been little. They receive money from friends and family for special holidays including their birthday. They also get money for losing their teeth, good grades, reading books and chores.

I decided to take them to the bank to open their own savings account. At most banks it is free for kids to open a savings account and they don’t have to keep a minimum in the account.

We brought their coins and dollars to the bank. The bank tellers were very nice in making sure the girls were involved in the process of opening the accounts and depositing their money.

Well, within a few days of opening the accounts, the girls wanted to take their money out of the bank to buy a big ticket item. 

They both wanted to get an iPod touch 4^th generation. They had wanted an iPod touch for quite some time. Their cousins had them so they knew what the iPods could do.

One reason they wanted the iPod 4 was to make movies with the Littlest Pet Shop Collectables. There is a fantastic free app you can download to make movies.  The other reason was they wanted to call each other on Face Time. Face Time is a free app that does video calls to other iPods or iPhones for free. Incredible if you ask me. The nice thing about iPods is you don’t pay any service fees once you buy it. So you can talk and text for free. The only drawback is you have to be where there is wireless internet service or Wi-Fi.  

We have rules on the iPods because as you can imagine kids would be on the iPods all the time. There is so much an iPod can do. You can have email, watch movies, play games, text, search and do just about anything. My daughters know they have to ask for any apps they want amd they have to ask to use Face Time to talk to their cousins. We limit the time of being on the device to two hours a day and they need to be off and turned in to me by seven at night. The girls are also very careful with their iPods because they paid for them. (I did pay for insurance on the iPods because I know how easy it is for the screen to crack. Big tip, make sure you get the insurance for a cracked screen. Walmart offers insurance for $17 and covers the cracked screen. Target is the same price for insurance, but doesn’t include a cracked screen.) I think after this summer the girls are learning a little bit more about the value of money.