“LIVE LISTEN”: The Eavesdropping iPhone Feature & What Parents Do Next
Every new, expanded feature in tech has both the potential for BENEFIT and the potential for HARM. Apps and websites meant to positively connect people are also used to spread hate, plan crimes, or connect predators to their victims. Smart technology can make our home entertainment options vast and convenient. That same smart technology, however, […]
Is Your Child’s Smartphone their Best Friend?
There is great value in knowing who your adolescent child’s friends are. Most specifically, who they consider their best friend. In this relationship, they will be more influenced by them than by you. Your adolescent’s growing independence should never preclude you from knowing who or what holds this power of influence. You may not be […]
Why Everyone Needs a Phone Basket
Every year we host a “Christmas Cookie and Hot Coco” party for our middle school aged children. It all began because Grandma, a Cambridge Culinary School trained chef, loves to bake dozens upon dozens of extravagant Christmas cookies for the kids to indulge in. Not wanting our kids to eat them all, we invited all […]
Apple iOS 12 Parental Controls: Content & Privacy Restrictions
Apple’s iOS 12 introduced new parental control features called Screen Time, allowing for more granular limits and mindfulness of time spent. Before diving into these Content & Privacy Restrictions you’ll need to first install iOS 12 onto your phone or device. Then set up Screen Time for your child’s account on your phone. In the […]
Always Available, Instant Communication is Hurting You: Here’s Five Ways to Change
I once asked a group of young middle school aged girls how they practiced patience with their smartphones. One girl proudly announced that she shows patience as she waits for the iMessage bubble indicating the other person is typing to display her newly received message. For many of us adults, this may be the extent […]
Neglect Your Phone (Not Your Child)
You probably think your teen spends too much time on their phone. A majority of parents (72%) feel this way according to new research.[1] And…over half of teens (52%) AGREE they spend too much time on their smartphone. Your child probably thinks YOU spend too much time on your phone. Over half of teens (51%) […]
Parenting Fail: A Smartphone Will Make You Happy
“If you loved me, you’d want me to be happy!” How many parents throughout the generations have heard their child cry this desperate song? It is a whine as old as time and one that parents have wisely dismissed. But then the smartphone was released. Around 2012, the age of ownership began a steady decline […]
Grandparenting in the Digital Age: What Grandchildren Actually Need (hint: it’s not your smartphone)
Earlier this year, I joined the ranks of the white-haired, wise sages who’ve gone before me: Grandparents. Except, I am neither white-haired nor do I possess the wisdom of a sage. I am a Gen X-er who is barely hanging onto my thirties and still raising six children in my home. Other than my thoughtful […]
Brave Parenting Q & A
On THURSDAY JUNE 28th at 8pm CST Brave Parenting Founder Kelly and her husband Ryan will be LIVE here at braveparenting.net and on Facebook [@braveparentingnetwork]. They will answer any of your Smartphone, Social Media, Internet, Boundaries, and Parenting questions. You can submit your questions in advance or during the live event. Kelly is the founder […]
Home Smartphones: The Better Alternative For Young Children
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. These are the sweet and precious memories of home […]
Love is NOT an Unrestricted Smartphone
A recent study by Pew Research Group showed that only 16% of parents use parental controls to restrict their child’s cell or smart phone. To restate this in a more obvious and ominous way: 84% of parents DO NOT USE parental controls to restrict phone usage. As a parent in the 16% I assume this […]
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 […]
Post. Shame. Delete. Repeat: The Way Social Media is Changing Friendship Among Teens
The Pattern “Ask me who are the 3 people I hate and I’ll tell you” the girl’s Instagram post starts out. Quickly, fellow high school students jump in guessing who, preferring this gossip rich distraction to their teacher’s lesson or assignments. Before long, the girl reveals the names on her new “hated” list. “Wait – […]
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 […]
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 […]
