The Best Way To Monitor Teen Online Activity (COLUMN RELATED)

Aside from actual education and conversations with your kids, and having constant access to their devices, profiles and passwords (read my July column here:https://jrc-pa.pageflip.site/editions/CKJ62779#page/4 ) there probably isn't a better way of seeing what your kids are actually up to on the internet or how to keep them safe, but these things might be of some help...

According to PC Mag (and I really like their suggestions on many things computer/software related, this is their top 2018 recommendations.

Parenting.com has ideas for how you can spy on your child as well as some texting abbreviations you should know.

Want to know where you child is? This is an app my son's friend's mom uses. I found out one day, because I texted her that I was on my way to her house to drop him off after a sleepover and she said, I know! And I was surprised to see a picture of a map, where I was and a photo of her child on the map in a little circle. It was so cute!

Want to know how to find out if your kids are sexting and more on Snap Chat, try Money.

Books to discover:

Screen-Smart Parenting

Some more selections...scroll to the bottom for 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

Digital Read for the tech savvy parent: Why Are You Always On the Phone? A book which is supposed to help us understand so that we can talk about it with our kids.

Sites to visit:

Common Sense Media is a great site for help, resources and research. (Scroll to the bottom too)

Smart Social teaches parents a lot about social media and cell phone practices.

HOW OLD KIDS ARE WHEN THEY GET THEIR FIRST PHONE AROUND THE WORLD?

Back to School Anxiety: Bullying

Download “School Boy Being Stressed” by David Castillo Dominici via freedigitalphotos.net I recently wrote about how to help your child if they’re struggling with going back to school because they were bullied. My biggest most important tip was to listen, because I honestly could not write a ‘How-to-make-them-not-afraid’ column. Frankly I thought that was absurd. Fear is sometimes real. Anxiety is sometimes truly there, and for a good reason. Our job as parents isn’t to try to make it go away, it’s to try to find out the true source of those worrisome feelings. If you’d like to read more, click here. And if you’re child is struggling to find excitement about the new school year, don’t deny it, just accept it and move forward gently. Here’s some more on bullying: Family Matters Links: A Touching Story/Song Bullying: A thing of the past A Peace Poem By My Teenage Daughter A Deeper Insight into My Thoughts on People Who Bring Harm to Others Other Links: Stop Bul

Green Punch Buggy....!!!!

Green Punch Buggy...No Punch Back! As I was writing this blog post, my son came to me showing off his Lego creation. And don't you know I got hit at least five times since on my computer screen was displaying at least five different punch buggies, of five different colors thanks to Google Images. (Bad timing I'm thinking...) How can we possibly have world peace with these silly cars in the world!? ;) Don't the owners of these cute-but-obnoxious-cars understand that driving these things around town promotes violence!? ;) Anyhow.... The original purpose of this blog was to ask parents everywhere this question: Do you find yourself saying 'PUNCH BUGGY *BLANK-COLOR*! ' to yourself, even when the kids are not in the car??? I do! Isn't it funny how those games we used to play as a child are still around? I bet our parents say the same thing.... HAPPY FRIIIIIIDAAAAYYYY! P.S. I got hit at least ten more times, since as my son stood beside

Good Customer Service At Home

Over the years, my careers have mainly been customer service based. I started in a family business and then moved on up through the rungs from waitress, to hostess, to sales associate, manager and eventually the GM of a hotel. In all my years, my training taught me that you should always do your best to take your customer all the way to what they need, make them happy, and never leave them until they are done with you. I pride myself on my customer service abilities. Though the other day, I think I failed at customer service in my own home! I was getting ready to cut my daughter's hair and because of how long it had gotten (she's been growing it out for a year!) I felt this time it would be best if instead of me spritzing it with water, she could wash and condition it real quick. She was fully clothed so I just suggested she run into the bathroom and wash her hair in the tub. She’s fourteen. I suppose I just assumed that she knew how to kneel over the tub and do it.

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