Hasta La Gadget!

I keep reading these crazy articles about parents getting warnings from Child Protective Services or other government entities for letting their kids walk home from the park by themselves, even though their oldest is 10.

And parents taking hits because they let their kids play outside without constant supervision.

And cops stepping in because, God forbid, a mom let her kid ride his bike down a road another “concerned” parent thought was too busy.

Sometimes I envy my mother for the parenting age of yesterday, for the freedom parents had back when I was a kid.

My mom let her kids roam. Actually, that might be an understatement for today’s roaming standards.

Not too long ago, my boys and my husband and I visited some of my childhood places, because I thought it would be fun for them (they complained the whole time).

My family lived in this one house on a pretty major road, across the street from some train tracks where we used to play for fun when I was a third-grader.

A little more than half a mile down this road was an old gas station that sold bubble gum for 10 cents.

My mom used to let my brother (10), my sister (6) and me (9) walk to that store, because we would pester her so effectively she would just yell, “Go!” at our backsides already racing out the door.

Do you know what we had to cross to get to the store? A HIGHWAY.

By ourselves.

All alone.

At 10, 9 and 6, in case you didn’t catch that.

There was no crosswalk, no blinking lights, no stop sign. There was no adult standing in the middle of the street waving a fluorescent orange flag and blowing a whistle to stop traffic. There was only an open road, a 50 mph speed limit and three kids racing across when they judged it was safe.

Now. I know what we all say — that the world is a much different place than it used to be, and I hate that old, “I did it and I’m just fine” argument just as much as the next person, but really. Has the danger of crossing a highway changed all that much?

It was, after all, the same highway where I remember watching my dog Chance spin in 15 circles when a car slammed into him as we were all crossing to check the mail.

My mom taught us the dangers, and then she trusted us to navigate them.

We’re not so great at trusting our kids anymore.

I know. When I think of my oldest boy, who will be a third grader next year, walking his brothers (a first grader and a kindergartener) the three blocks home from school, I shake a little inside. What if he forgets to pick them up? What if he gets mad at them and leaves them behind? What if they forget to look both ways when they’re crossing streets? They have to cross three of them, for God’s sake, and what if the drivers are going too fast or staring at their phones instead of the street?

I can talk myself out of that freedom so easily. Because I love my children so much.

But I also love them enough to let them try.

If we never let our children try, how will they ever know the excitement of having this self-management responsibility? How will they ever experience those rites of passage that come with turning another year older? How will they learn to navigate the dangers in the world on their own?

Maybe I’m naïve about it, but I don’t think the world at large has changed so much as the world of parenting has. My mother used to let us walk on a busy road without a shoulder or a sidewalk and cross a semi-busy highway because she knew all the other mothers who lived on the street. She knew they would watch out for her kids in the same way she would watch out for theirs when they rode their bikes down the same road on their way to the elementary school playground. To play — by themselves — on merry-go-rounds and unpadded seesaws and metal slides that scorched the backs of your legs when the sun was out and ripped off your skin when you were wearing shorts.

If we are so concerned for the safety of other people’s children, maybe instead of calling the cops on a child’s parents, because we don’t agree with the way the child gets to roam in this dangerous world (There are predators! There are bullies! There are drivers! Predators, bullies and drivers, oh my!), we could just step in as extra eyes.

What this might look like is standing outside our home when the school bell rings, watching that wave of children walk past so we’d see anything suspicious, getting to know those children, asking them if they feel okay about walking alone. If they’re feeling scared today. Whether they would like some company for part of the way.

The other day, I was driving my two schoolboys home because it was raining, and I saw a boy on the ground and another one punching him in the belly.

“Hang on,” I told my boys, and I slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car into the pouring down rain to investigate what looked like a pretty serious fight.

Turns out they were just two boys horsing around, and they carried on their walking way, probably laughing about another mom freaking out about nothing.

Do you know what didn’t even cross my mind to do?

Call the cops on the parents who let them walk home by themselves.

That would have been ridiculous. Parents know their own kids, right? Maybe we should just LET THEM PARENT.

I don’t want to be afraid to let my kids explore the world around them because some “concerned” person might make a call and Child Protective Services suddenly shows up at my door. I want to give them freedom to play and wonder and discover and, through it all, learn that they are capable of making their way in this scary, but mostly safe, world.

We need to reject this culture of fear that is so pervasively damaging (and unnecessary). We need to find our courage. We need to trust each other again.

Most of all, we need to mind our own damn business.

Now that I got that off my chest, it’s time to send my boys out the back door and lock it.

A mama needs her break, after all.

This article originally appeared on Crash Test Parents. Find Rachel on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Android comes with built-in protection feature to prevent unauthorized use of your phone. You can use the medium (Pattern) or high (Password) security, according to your requirement to prevent people from accessing your phone data.

However, there is a chance you might end up forgetting your password/pattern and lock yourself out of your phone. Furthermore, if your phone doesn’t have any protection, then anyone can lock your phone easily if they get access to it (quite a common prank). But don’t worry, we can help you access your device with some simple tricks.

Warning: You should only bypass the security of your own phone that you personally own. The below mentioned methods should never be used to access phone of any other person without their consent. You will be solely responsible for any possible action taken against you.

Bypass Pattern Lock

Pattern Lock provides medium protection and it is actually quite easy to unlock. However, this doesn’t mean anyone can unlock it, in most cases, only the owner of the phone can actually bypass it, here is how.

If you don’t know the exact pattern, then make 5 incorrect patterns and make sure you go through at least 4 points while entering incorrect patterns. When you will enter 5 incorrect patterns, you will be prompted that you need to wait 30 seconds before making further attempts, tap “OK” on the prompt. Now, you will see two new options below, “Forgot Password” and Backup Pin”. You can use any of these two options to access your phone.

Backup Pin

When you first created the Pattern you were also prompted to add a Pin code that will be used to bypass Pattern in case you forget it. If you still remember the Pin code, then just tap on “Backup Pin” and enter the Pin Code. If you can’t access the Pin code field, then wait for the 30 second timer to finish and then enter the Pin code. As you enter the correct Pin code, you will be automatically directed to the “Lock Screen” option where you can enter a new protection option.

Forgot Password

If you don’t remember the Pin code, then you can click on “Forgot Password” to unlock pattern using your Google Account. For this purpose, your phone must be connected to a Google account, and most probably it will be connected to a Google account as it is required to use most of Android features.

Tap on “Forgot Password” and on the next page, enter your Google account email and password and tap on “Sign in”. If both email and password are correct, then the phone will unlock and you will be directed to “Lock Screen” option.

Bypass Pin/Password Lock

It is not that easy to bypass Password/Pin (if it was easy, why would it be there?), but still you can bypass it. There are different methods for this purpose and we are going to mention the easiest ones.

Method #1: Use Samsung’s Find My Mobile Feature (Samsung Phones only)

If you have an Android phone by Samsung and it is also connected to a Samsung Account, then you can unlock your phone using “Find My Mobile” service. This service is basically used for finding your phone and controlling it remotely, so it can also be used to unlock your phone if the phone has internet access.

Just open Find MY Mobile website and Sign in with your Samsung Account.

Once inside, click on “Unlock my Device” located in the left side menu and from the drop down menu click on “Unlock my screen”.

Now, on the next page, click on “Unlock” and your device will unlock automatically while removing Security lock. You can then add another protection as you may like.

Method #2: Use An App To Unlock Your Phone (Paid)

You can also use an Android app that will let you bypass lock screen, but there aren’t many apps for this purpose. Either your phone needs to be rooted or you will have to pay for the app in order to use it in an unrooted phone.

For this purpose, Screen Lock Bypass Pro is most famous and it can unlock a phone without any root access. However, the app comes with a price of $4.2, but if you would like to protect your data and you can’t access by any other means, then this is your last hope.

Note: This app might not work on all Android devices, so before buying make sure it is compatible with your Android phone.

You need to access Google Play Store with the Google account that is connected to your phone with a PC. Then Just go to Screen Lock Bypass Pro app and download it on the device which you need to unlock (after purchasing, of course). Although make sure your phone is not connected to any charger or USB data cable that could charge it.

Once the app is installed completely, plug in your charger or restart your phone (by taking out the battery). The bypass process will start and once completed you will see an “Activate” button that you can tap to reset the lock screen.

Method #3: Factory Reset Your Phone

This is the simplest method and doesn’t have any special requirements to fulfill either. However, it will completely delete all of your data and reset your phone to its Factory condition. This means if you didn’t backup any important data, then it will be deleted and you can’t do anything about it now as you are locked out.

As your phone is “locked”, you obviously can’t access the Settings to Factory Reset your phone. So we are going to use the Android’s “Recovery Mode” to factory reset the phone.

To enter recovery mode, you need to press a combination of “Home Button”, “Power Button” and “Volume buttons” while the phone is booting. The combination depends on your device and the manufacturer of your device, so you will either have to contact the manufacturer to get the combination or try different combinations yourself.

For example, For most Samsung Phones, we need to press “Power Button”, “Home Button” and “Volume Up Button” simultaneously while the phone is booting to enter recovery mode.

If you know the combination for your phone, just turn your phone off by holding “Power Button” and selecting “Power off” from the menu (or holding “Power Button” for 5 seconds). Now, turn on the phone by holding “Power Button” again and as soon as you see the screen with Manufacturer’s Logo, press the required key combination and hold it.

You need to keep holding it until the phone restarts again (it should take 2-4 seconds). You should see a menu of few options that isn’t much graphic intensive. If the phone starts booting normally, then turn it off again and retry until you get it right.

Once inside Recovery mode, you can navigate up and down through the options using the Volume Up and Down keys and to select an option you need press the “Power Button”. In the options, you will see an option of “Wipe data/ factory reset”, navigate to it and press “Power Button”. After that confirm the prompt and your phone will factory reset (it may take 5-10 minutes).

As the process completes, you will have to provide all personal details again like you did the first time when you bought the phone, and there will be no Password Protection activated.

Here is a video as well, showing how you can factory reset your phone using Android Recovery Mode:

Let us know how the article helped you or provide further suggestions in the comments below.

How To Bypass Android Lock Screen , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.