My 13-year-old refused to share his location with me. I was annoyed — until I realized he had a point.

I don't think of myself as an overprotective parent. I began letting my kids stay home alone for short stints when they were around 10. I let them wander our neighborhood alone starting when they were 11 or 12. I don't heavily monitor their social lives or phone usage, nor do I check their grades constantly or make them give me access to their Google Classroom to monitor their schoolwork.

But I don't do things the same way that my generation's parents did things.

I'm Generation X, and in my generation, there were no "playdates." Parents didn't track your grades, and they definitely didn't track your location. You'd be walking around the neighborhood alone at 6 or 7 years old, often for hours. Usually your parents had no idea where you were. The hope was that you'd come home sometime before dark.

When my youngest son turned 13, he started going out with friends on his own. Sometimes he'd take a friend's school bus home with them, and hang out for a few hours. Other times, he'd walk over to a friend's house, and then walk around town.

I supported this — it reminded me of the freedom I experienced as a teenager and I know how important that was for my own development.

My son is super responsible, and doesn't make social plans without letting me know. That's why I didn't think it would be such a big deal when I asked him to share his location with me on his phone.

I didn't think of tracking as an invasion of my son's privacy. It just felt normal, the same way that I can see his grades as they come in on the school portal if I choose to. Or the way that I ask my son to text me about his social plans as they unfold, rather than just sending him out and expecting him to come back by nightfall.

But my son was adamant about me not tracking his location. My first reaction was, "I'm giving you freedom to do whatever you want, so I should be able to see where you are!" But as he made his case to me — that he is responsible and will update me, but doesn't like the idea of me tracking his every movement — I totally saw his point.

It's one thing to tell your parents what you're doing, and when you're coming home, but do parents really need to monitor every step a child takes?

Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you’re searching for what matters.

I understand the idea of knowing a child's location so that you might be able to find them if you don't end up hearing from them. But honestly, if something awful were to happen, there's no way to be sure they'd still have their phone on them, or that tracking them would be able to protect them in any significant way.

Plus, I saw my son's point. I put my own teenage self in his position. If my parents had some way to track every move I made back in the day, I definitely would have felt resentful.