First thing every morning, my husband wakes me up with a cup of tea and hands me my phone. Before I've even had a sip, I'll check for any messages from my only child, Hannah. Then I'll open the geolocation app that lets me monitor where she is at all times. All her regular haunts are on there, so I get an alert whenever she arrives or leaves somewhere.
I usually check in every couple of hours, my eyes trained on the blue dot that represents my beloved child.
It would be easy to assume Hannah is a teenager, and I'm concerned for her safety walking to and from school. Or perhaps she's a fresher, recently arrived at university and on her own for the first time. But Hannah is neither a student nor a teen. She's 33, married and a mother herself.
However, this hasn't stopped me being involved in every aspect of her life. I know her phone and social media passwords. I have a set of keys to her home (we live just a five-minute drive from one another in Cardiff).
I make sure we speak three times a day, and I have influenced her friendships, jobs and even approved her choice of husband. There really is no area of her life that's off-limits to me.
This story is from the February 12, 2024 edition of WOMAN - UK.
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This story is from the February 12, 2024 edition of WOMAN - UK.
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