+Not the Mama! Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Hi We have a teenage (13) daughter who was initially very interested in Geocaching with us, but now she just sits in the truck listening to music. I'd like to give her some additional interest by opening her own Geocaching account & getting her an inexpensive GPSr. Am I able to set-up her own Geocaching account, or is there a minimum age? (She has her own computer & email account.) Quote Link to comment
+Ambrosia Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Hi, there is not minimum age to set up an account. Some people set up accounts for their babies as soon as they are born! Some people also create accounts for their dogs, as well We started caching over 6 years ago when our children were 5 and 8 years old, and started accounts for them almost right away. They have found hundreds of caches and have placed a few of their own. I've always been very glad that we created profiles for them, it's given them a solid geocaching identity that is a part of who they are. Quote Link to comment
+-CacheMonkey- Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 My two boys (9 and 10) asked for their own account not long after I started caching last year. They don't always log their finds online, but they enjoy watching their own travel bugs or geocoins travel. My oldest just placed his first cache and really likes watching for cachers to come find it. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 We have a teenage (13) daughter who was initially very interested in Geocaching with us, but now she just sits in the truck listening to music. I'm sorry to say get used to it. Unfortunately, at that age the only accounts they want would be an instant messaging account and a Facebook account. At about ages 13 and 14 the fun outings we used to have together were pretty much through. Getting our kid to come out with us on any sort of outdoor activity was like getting her to go to the dentist. Of course we could make her come, but then the outings were about as fun as a trip to the dentist if we did that. It's just the age. We learned not to take it personally. Heck, I did it to my parents, so I guess it's just payback time. Hopefully you'll have better luck with your teen than we did with our daughter and most of our friends had with theirs. Quote Link to comment
+Markwell Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 SemperFiWags is only 4 with an account. Quote Link to comment
+Sandy Hams Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 My granddaughter is only 10 and she set up her own account. I just did not get her a Premium account -- she set up the free kind. She has her own name and logs all her own caches. She has also placed a cache on her own. It is not difficult and I don't think there are any rules prohibiting children from participating in the game. Quote Link to comment
+TellMeIfYouSeeAChicken Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Hi We have a teenage (13) daughter who was initially very interested in Geocaching with us, but now she just sits in the truck listening to music. I'd like to give her some additional interest by opening her own Geocaching account & getting her an inexpensive GPSr. Also, have you considered bringing one of her friends? Maybe you could go on a simple caching trip in a regional park. Send your daughter and her friend in the direction of an easy cache (maybe one you've pre-scoped out) while you and your husband go find others, and agree to meet back in the truck in an hour, then go back to your house and friend spends the night. That way she can enjoy caching without being, sad to say, annoyed that she's tagging along with mom and dad. My girls usually love caching with me. They're nine and eleven, so not at the same social/hormonal place that your daughter's in, but I know one of the big keys for Hamachi is that her best friend caches with her family too. So that elevates geocaching to "something to do with my friend" instead of "yet another thing my mom drags me along to do." Good luck! I think getting her the inexpensive GPSr is a great idea. Quote Link to comment
+Super_Nate Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 I'm sorry to say get used to it. Unfortunately, at that age the only accounts they want would be an instant messaging account and a Facebook account. Make that a MySpace account So much nicer.... I got a geocaching account when I was 16, and I have logged over 2,300 caches since! Quote Link to comment
+Not the Mama! Posted July 13, 2008 Author Share Posted July 13, 2008 Thanks everyone for your replies. We have now discussed this & I will set up an account for my daughter, also we will discuss with one of her friend's parents if she could also have an account. Quote Link to comment
+TeamAtlas Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 I don't mean to hijack the thread, but what is the protocol for logging caches your child found as part of your team but now has their own account? For example, my 11 year old son wants his own account, and has been with us for most of our finds, even finding several himself. Can he go back and log those finds under his new name, even though he didn't have a geo-nick at the time to sign the log book with? We signed with our team name. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment
+Team Smksignals Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 (edited) We have a teenage (13) daughter who was initially very interested in Geocaching with us, but now she just sits in the truck listening to music. I'm sorry to say get used to it. Unfortunately, at that age the only accounts they want would be an instant messaging account and a Facebook account. At about ages 13 and 14 the fun outings we used to have together were pretty much through. Getting our kid to come out with us on any sort of outdoor activity was like getting her to go to the dentist. Of course we could make her come, but then the outings were about as fun as a trip to the dentist if we did that. It's just the age. We learned not to take it personally. Heck, I did it to my parents, so I guess it's just payback time. Hopefully you'll have better luck with your teen than we did with our daughter and most of our friends had with theirs. I must be one of the lucky ones My 13 ( 14 in Aug ) year old son loves going out looking for caches. We just solved a pretty lengthy puzzle cache yesterday... Edited July 13, 2008 by SmkSignals Quote Link to comment
Neos2 Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 I don't mean to hijack the thread, but what is the protocol for logging caches your child found as part of your team but now has their own account? For example, my 11 year old son wants his own account, and has been with us for most of our finds, even finding several himself. Can he go back and log those finds under his new name, even though he didn't have a geo-nick at the time to sign the log book with? We signed with our team name. Any thoughts? Lots of people have done this. Very few cache owners will have any problem with it. If you do run across one who objects, encourage your son to shrug his shoulders and move on. Make sure to change the date field to match the date the team was there and do add a note explaining he is going back to log caches under his new individual account. It's also nice if he can add any special thoughts or memories about the cache when he makes the log--but not required. Quote Link to comment
crawil Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 We did the same thing. My son (now 14) created his own account and back-logged over 500 finds with the line "Went out with the CRAWIL clan and grabbed this one." or something close to that. No one objected. Quote Link to comment
+wesleykey Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 My dog has an account and he can't even type! Quote Link to comment
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