5 Best Care Items All Worried-Sick Parents Should Send Their Not-So Homesick College Students

Your little kid is all grown now and is probably very excited about going away to college. New city, new friends, new adventures, and newfound freedom - you know, the sorta things that keep you up at night, worried sick.

You know very well that teenage drivers can get reckless at times, and that often, there are instances where they are considered at fault from the start, even if they did nothing wrong. Unfortunately, when they're far away and you can't be there for them, things get a bit trickier and a lot more worrisome.

In this article, we'll discuss one way of doing so – a sort of care package that you can buy for your child to keep them safe even when they're away!

Dashcams are a must-have when it comes to ensuring road safety for your children. These sophisticated gadgets do much more than simply record the drive; they are a quintessential safety assurance for drivers and vehicles.

The entry-level dash cam that packs the most bang for your buck is the Thinkware F200 PRO. Available in both the 1-Channel and 2-Channel versions, the F200 PRO captures their drive in Full HD at a wide 140-degree angle. It comes with Super Night Vision and Time Lapse Parking Mode to ensure your child and their car is protected day and night, on and off the road. The F200 PRO is a WiFi-enabled dash cam, which means they can playback videos and control camera settings right from their smartphone.

Now, if you want to access the footage remotely (i.e., from your home), you will need a Cloud-ready dash cam. While Thinkware and BlackVue offer various high-resolution Cloud-ready models, we recommend the BlackVue DR750-2CH LTE. It's a Full HD dash cam, so you won't get 2K QHD or 4K UHD videos from it. But what you do get is the convenience of built-in LTE connectivity. Just plug in an active SIM card, and the dash cam is accessible through the cloud anytime, anywhere - no need for extra mobile hotspots or routers. Data-only plans are readily available and affordable nowadays, but that additional SIM card will let you stay connected every time they get in the car.

When your child is away from home, their dash cam is probably the only way that connects you when they are on the road. Thus, the clarity of its recordings is going to be even more crucial. So be sure to go the extra mile to ensure that their dashcam footage is as straightforward as possible - and CPL filters are the perfect addition to their dash cam. CPL filters will help counter the effects of bright reflections, lens flares, and glares. The color clarity of their dashcam videos is assured with just a small installation.

Overexposed footage can create hindrances in identifying the liable party in an accident case (hit and run), but this 14.5 mm filter will ensure that this does not happen.

You don't expect your child to hardwire the dash cam themselves, do you? We don't doubt that some kids might take an interest and do an excellent job. But most others will want something simple, and a plug-and-play power solution is what they need.

For Thinkware dash cams, the OBD power cable connects the dash cam to the vehicle's power source via the OBD port. This is essentially the easiest way to unlock power for the dash cam's parking recording.

Unfortunately, there is no plug-and-play OBD power option for BlackVue dash cams. And, for that, we recommend a dash cam battery pack, like the Cellink NEO. This battery pack will power the dash cam even when the car is parked, and the best part is that you don't have to constantly check if it is running low on power because it integrates with smartphones via Bluetooth. Thus your child can check the status of the battery with a simple tap on their phone; talk about convenience.

Since it features Lithium Iron Phosphate in its core and has been designed specifically for dashcams, you don't need to worry about the performance.

The maintenance requirements of a car are another area where a person can be a bit negligent in their ever-busy routine, and the repercussions can be rather extreme. If the car breaks down at a pivotal moment, it can create a heap of issues for your child. We also know that maintenance issues can complicate accident cases, and no one wants that.

Of course, you can preempt such a disaster by ensuring on-time maintenance and nipping problems in their buds. But with a hectic school and social routine, it is understandable if this is not the first thing on their to-do list. Even if your child is on the ball, you can't guarantee that the mechanic they go to is as honest as you'd like them to be. Luckily there are the ThinkCar OBD diagnostic tools.

ThinkCar offers a whole range of diagnostics tools, but the two that we recommend are the ThinkCar 1S and the ThinkDiag. Both scanners work the same way in that all your child needs to do is plug the dongle into the OBD port of the car, connect it to their smartphone via Bluetooth. Their smartphone becomes a professional OBD diagnostic tool, ready to read problems like Check Engine Light and more, making car maintenance easy, stress-free, and inexpensive.

The beauty of these two diagnostic tools lies in their capability for you to tap in and help your child remotely from your home. You can even grant permission to your family mechanic to perform real-time remote diagnostics.

And of course, if we could have it our way, our kids will remain on campus, in their dorm rooms anytime they don't have class. But we know that's not going to happen - unless there is something for them to do in their room. Did anyone say Netflix-marathon on the big screen?

Yes! We did!

The Sentrym L1 can transform their tiny dorm room into a theatre experience! With features like built-in Android 9.0, Bluetooth connectivity, and HDMI compatibility, they can use the L1 to stream movies and TV shows, play console games, surf the internet, and much more. We have no doubts that, sooner or later, they will also find out they can plus the L1 into their laptop for multimedia projections and presentations for all their classes.

Top it off with a collection of their favorite treats and snacks, Bluetooth speakers (or headphones), and pre-paid subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and all the favorite streaming services, and throw in some UberEats or DoorDash - you just won Best Parent of the Year!

While we currently don't carry the Sentrym L1 on BlackboxMyCar.com, you can use code "BBMC20" when you check out at Sentrym.com to take 20% off your purchase!

Parents worry for their kids; it is like a job for them. We understand how you feel about your young one growing up and going to college far away. But you really don't have to wait until holidays or birthdays to send a care package - there are many other occasions where a "just because I care" package is welcomed. And hopefully, this care package will help you rest at ease about their safety while on the road, away from home.