How Brave Faith Changes Children
Brave Parenting welcomes guest writers to share their stories and testimonies of parenting bravely with our community. Today we welcome Anika Ortiz, a mother of three from West Linn, OR. Connect with Anika: anikaortiz.com One of the greatest gifts we offer our children is the opportunity to move beyond their comfort zones into the expanse […]
Windows Family Safety Parental Controls
If you use Windows PC in your home, Family Safety settings are essential for children’s accounts. They are easy to set up once you’ve created an account for each child who will use the PC. Finding the Family Safety in Windows is the only tricky part. Step 1: Tap the window icon on the toolbar […]
MAC Computer Parental Controls
Similar to Apple iPhones, Mac computers offer fantastic parental controls to protect your child’s internet and computer usage. Step 1: Go to System Preferences, which looks just like the Settings function on an iPhone. Step 2: Create separate user accounts for each child. Select Users & Groups. Step 3: Unlock to make changes. Click on […]
ANDROID Phone and Tablet Parental Controls
Android devices pose a unique challenge to parents who want to protect their children from inappropriate content and apps. There are very limited restrictions built into the device. Their open app environment, variations in each version, and ease of customization make it very difficult to effectively protect children. There are third party monitoring apps which […]
What Every Parent Needs to Know About Facebook’s MESSENGER KIDS
It’s widely known that tweens and teens aren’t on Facebook any more now that Great Grandma has a profile. From a business point of view, Facebook wants their share of the younger market back. Apparently owning Instagram and mimicking the features of Snapchat isn’t enough. Facebook has now introduced Messenger Kids: a safer place for […]
Porn-Proofing your Home
Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links to products for which we may receive a commission. We purchased all products mentioned at full price and only became an affiliate after using and loving them ourselves. Do you recycle in your home? If so, chances are you have discussed with your children the importance of recycling in […]
How Instagram Opens a Back Door to Pornography
The beloved photo-sharing social network our children love so much could be their first exposure to pornography. These aren’t methods promoted by Instagram, but kids are so tech-stealthy these days, they find ways around things. SEARCH: TOP PEOPLE TAGS PLACES The SEARCH feature is what turns your child’s small circle of peer influence into an […]
It Starts with Dinner: Phones Off the Table
Over the past ten years our culture has allowed for a seismic shift in acceptable and respectful behavior between people. Phubbing, sharenting, exposing, roasting, and sexting are now everyday, household behaviors. We’ve been swept off our feet from a tsunami of smartphones. Everyone now seems to be clinging to their devices for dear life. The […]
Teaching Texting: The Parent’s Responsibility
Parents gain wisdom from experience. Children make foolish mistakes. One of the fundamental responsibilities of parents is to teach lessons from our wisdom in hopes to prevent foolish mistakes. Most of us like to think we champion this responsibility with excellence. Unfortunately, too many lessons happen in the silent recesses of our brains known as […]
The Most Important iPhone Setting Every Parent Should be Using
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It is hard to enforce healthy boundaries for our kids when it comes to their smartphones and devices, even harder is trying to enforce a strong “NO” to inappropriate apps. Kids are savvy and with the internet readily available they can Google or YouTube their way around your “healthy boundaries.” For a lot of parents, […]
What Every Parent Needs to Know About the Updated Instagram
Battling For Souls There are a few gigantic corporations brutally fighting it out in order to win the souls of our children (and money in their pockets.) By ‘souls’ we mean their entire livelihood and by ‘money’ we mean many millions. Aside from Google, who is a clear pack leader with their efforts to take […]
Dear Youth Pastors on Snapchat
Not everyone has conformed. There are still some of us brave and undaunted parents who are fighting, against all odds and societal norms, to keep our children from being polluted by the world. We are the parents who do not allow our teenagers to use social media. Have you met us? Did you know such […]
3 Key Ways to Balance Summer Freedom & Structure
Summer is such a sweet release for both parents and children alike. Absent are the alarm clocks blaring us into a new day while the sun remains hidden from our sky. Homework and projects do not dictate our evening schedules or dampen our spirits with looming dread. So what will your children be doing with […]
A Simple and Effective Way to Protect/Monitor Your Child Online
*Disclaimer: My family purchased Circle independently and we use it as a primary internet control in our home. Because we love it, we have become an affiliate partner with Circle.* As a parent, do you believe you should monitor your child’s screen time but don’t know how to? Have you thought you were monitoring and restricting […]
Kids are Savvy and Sneaky – Here’s Why You Should Care:
You aren’t going to like hearing this, but your children are most likely doing things behind your back you don’t know about. WAIT! WHAT!! Did you know? A better question, do you care? If their grades are not affected, do you care what they do at school? If their safety isn’t in jeopardy, do you mind […]
The Home Smart Phone: The Better Alternative
Remember the days when you stretched out every curl from the tethered phone cord in desperate attempt to talk to your friends away from listening ears? Or maybe you recall arguing with your sibling as they continued to pick up another house phone during your call, either to eavesdrop or tell you to get off […]
Blindfolded Parenting and the Rise of Snapchat
A recent survey of American parents revealed that less than half of parents (40%) know the content their children are seeing through social media accounts. This indicates 60% of parents are metaphorically BLINDFOLDED to what content is being poured into their child. Not surprising considering Snapchat, the master Houdini of all social media apps, has taken […]
Killing the Silence: 3 Ways You Can Prioritize Face-to-Face Communication in Your Home
If you go to a Middle School party, you’ll be sure to find huddled up pre-teens, still small in their stature yet confidently boasting large smart phones. If a moment gets awkward or when 2 minutes have past (whichever comes first) they’ll reach for this technological security blanket. They’ll be messaging their friends who stand […]
Big Dreams: The One Thing Children Desperately Need From You
Children love to dream. Whether they dream about life, the future, or fantastic stories from their imagination, they know how to dream big. From the moment they begin speaking and through their adolescence they blissfully proclaim their desire to be a princess, a doctor, the President, or the next big NBA basketball star. As parents, […]
Digital Amnesia and Why You Won’t Remember These Moments
Have you been at an event and witnessed someone experiencing life and capturing the moment solely through their phone? The evolution from film to digital has changed our lifestyle and most importantly our memories. We photographically document our lives extensively and excessively. From “why is my toddler crying” (*snap*) to “this awesome meal we’re about […]
CHARACTER Driven Read Aloud BOOK LIST
Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links to products for which we may receive a commission. There are 168 hours in a week. On average, this is how our children spend these hours: 6.5 hr school x 5 days = 32.5 hours 4-9 hr media consumption x 7 days = 45.5 hours (avg) 2-3 hours extracurricular […]