When I tell my friends about TenderTidings.com, the new Web-based family help service my daughter and I started, the usual response is, “If only I’d had that when my kids were young teenagers! That’s when I really needed to stay more connected to my children!”

Most people think of Tender Tidings as a way for new moms and dads to check on their babies via videostream from their work computers, and that was the original intent of the website. After all, even for career-minded mothers and fathers, returning to work after the birth of a baby is an unsettling time. Learning to juggle the demands of the job with that precious new little Life that’s waiting at home creates a new need --- to see that baby during the day just to know she’s doing fine. Just to stay connected to that precious new Life.

However, what young moms and dads don’t know yet, thank goodness, is they’ll feel the same uneasiness, that same worry when that precious Life comes home to an empty house after school or stays at home alone on a school holiday. And that day comes much sooner than either child or parent is really ready for it, usually. There comes a time when those babies wear size 8 shoes and can devour a pizza in one sitting, but it doesn’t mean we don’t worry about them just as much as when they were in diapers. In fact, we may worry more, because we know all the possible pitfalls for children staying home alone, no matter what safeguards we provide. They’re still children home alone.

That’s why my friends and I wish we’d had Tender Tidings when our kids were young teens. It would have given me so much peace of mind to click on a website, pull up a live videostream of my child, see that, yes, she’s eating her snack or doing her homework or watching TV. A 30 second peek would allow me to get back to work and focus.

Tender Tidings is indeed a child monitoring system. Your child may be in Reeboks instead of Pampers, though.