Man, I feel you on the tech-savvy kid thing. Mine can smell parental software from three rooms away.
Here’s the thing though - if you’re trying to go completely invisible, you’re walking into sketchy territory. Most legit monitoring apps will have some kind of footprint, and honestly? That’s by design.
I went through this same mental gymnastics routine when my kid was bouncing between houses. Ended up deciding that some transparency was better than playing spy games. We had the conversation, set boundaries, told him I’d be checking in. He wasn’t thrilled, but at least I’m not lying to him.
The “totally invisible” apps tend to be either ineffective or straight-up spyware that could put you in a legally weird spot.
What’s driving the concern? Depending on what you’re worried about, there might be better approaches than full stealth mode. Sometimes the conversation itself does more than the software ever could.