True Crime-Obsessed Mom Stays Up All Night To Watch Her 20-Year-Old Daughter's Location Until She Knows She's Home Safe
Once a mom, always a mom, true crime obsession aside.
@familiesthtcrimetogether / TikTok If there’s one constant in life, it’s that moms tend to worry about their children, even when they’re all grown up. Wanting to make sure your kids get home safe at the end of the day is typical for parents, but is there a risk that true crime obsession might escalate that concern to unhealthy levels?
A mom posted a video on her true crime TikTok account joking about how she stays up all night tracking her daughter’s location.
Amber Garza (@familiesthtcrimetogether) is a mom who posted jokes about how she worries a little more about her kids than what might be considered normal since she is “a fan of true crime.”
In one video, she laughed at the idea of not worrying about her kids now that they’re adults, captioning it, “Not when you’re a fan of true crime. Am I right?”
In another video about tracking her daughter’s location, her caption read, “The perils of being a mom and a listener of true crime.”
To be fair, in the age of technologies, with apps like Life360 and Apple’s FindMyApp, it’s pretty standard for family members to share their locations with one another. As Garza pointed out, it can be critical to have someone’s last known location in case of an emergency.
And, as evidenced by the comments on the video, it’s also relatively normal for parents to track their kid’s location when they’re out and about at night, and to be unable to sleep until they know their kids are back at home.
Does a fascination with true crime have an unhealthy effect on your worldview, though? Probably. There are countless articles on the potential effects of true crime on mental health — most commonly, disproportionate levels of paranoia, distrust, and fear.
If you’re constantly reading about horrific crimes, it’s no surprise that your mind might jump to dark places when wondering how your daughter’s night out is going. It’s important to be aware of your surroundings and to be generally cautious, but thinking that every other person you see might be an ax murderer isn’t the most constructive way to look at the world.
While Garza joked about how her love of true crime has affected her worldview, she made a follow-up video explaining how she was exaggerating and doesn’t track her kids all the time.
In response to a comment saying she didn’t trust her daughter, she stated that she trusts her kids and lets them live their lives, but just likes to make sure they’re home safe at night.
“I am not tracking my kids because I don’t think they’re doing the right thing in life,” she said. “But as a person who listens to a lot of true crime and knows what can happen in the world — I mean, my daughter has encountered men who followed her around, she’s had people that have stalked her — it’s been pretty scary.”
Garza explained that she doesn’t usually track her kids, but tends to check in with them if she sees that they’re out at night. “If they’re out having fun, I don’t worry about it. They’re adults,” she said.
Regardless of your opinion on parents who track their adult children’s locations, one thing’s for sure — it’s not uncommon.
The comments on Garza's TikToks were full of other moms relating to the video. “I do this too. Can’t sleep until I know she’s settled,” one mom shared. “Mine is 27 and I do the same. At this point I might as well just start going out with her since I’m pulling an all-nighter anyway,” another joked.
One comment summed the conversation up nicely: “A mother’s job is never over.”
Jessica Bracken is a writer living in Davis, California. She covers entertainment and news for YourTango.