Tag Archive for kids

Protect Your Kids from Cyber Space

March 1, 2017 Comments Off on Protect Your Kids from Cyber Space

This is good for everyone, but I worry more about our kids.  They see the power draining out of their phone or tablet, spot a public charging station, and say “why not?”

The reason “why not” is that hackers are getting into those stations and waiting for someone to use them.  At that point, they hack into the phone or tablet and install malware or suck up all the data contained on it.  Despite what we’d like, kids store pictures nobody else should see, personal data that can be used to open a credit account, family information that could make it easy for buglers to visit our home while we’re on vacation, passwords and security codes, even show a pattern of behavior that gives potential evil-doers more opportunities to abduct our child.

Using any charging station should be safe IF the phone is turned off while charging.  That’s a big IF with kids, though, who don’t want to miss a single tweet.  Consider protecting your kids (and your family) with an inexpensive USB cord that allows charging but not data-transfer, and make sure they carry it with them and leave their other cord home.

Yes, parenting is getting harder and harder.  Our kids are sure worth the effort, though, aren’t they?

Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , ,

Our Kids: Our Top Priority

February 7, 2017 Comments Off on Our Kids: Our Top Priority

This is for some parents who haven’t seen this news story yet.  You aren’t bad parents, just a product of our times.  With work and friends and things to do, we’re glued to our phones.  They’ve become so much a part of us that we don’t even notice when we’re on them

But our kids do.  Especially when they’ve been at daycare, school, or otherwise away from us all day.  They love us and miss us.  And they feel unimportant to us when we ignore them in favor of our phone.  Usually, we can finish up that business call before greeting them or ignore an incoming call for awhile–long enough for some kisses and hugs and what-did-you-do-todays on the way home.

Here’s the sign that a Houston TX daycare put on their door.  It’s a good reminder that our kids are top priority in our lives.

 

get off your phone daycare message to parents

 

Uncategorized , , , , , , , ,

To Do List for Winter

December 21, 2016 Comments Off on To Do List for Winter

Today is the first day of winter.  Time to change some habits.  Here’s a helpful list.

  1. Check and turn on your heater & be sure your outside animals have warmth and protection from the cold.
  2. Dig out heavy coats and sweaters for your family & set aside those in good condition that no longer fit or you don’t use and drop them off at a charity or shelter for the homeless.
  3. Buy more groceries at one time so you don’t need to go out into the cold so often & donate some non-perishable food items to a local food bank to help hungry families.
  4. Cook heartier meals for your family & dedicate some hours to a soup kitchen to help feed the hungry.
  5. Lay in a supply of board games to play with your kids when it’s too cold to go out to play & call to chat with someone who is alone and not able to go out even when it’s warm.

This winter, think of both your immediate and your extended family.

Uncategorized , , , , , , ,

Sage Palm & Dogs & Kids

June 11, 2016 Comments Off on Sage Palm & Dogs & Kids

Most places selling Sage Palm, a popular garden plant, don’t affix a warning label, and they tell a customer of any danger only if he or she asks if there’s any danger.

In fact, the whole plant is poisonous, especially the seeds.

In 2010 the ASPCA reported 1400 dog-poisonings due to this plant.

Kids under age 5–those stuff-anything-into-your-mouth years–are often poisoned by it, too.

Before you buy any plant, look for a warning label.  If there isn’t one, look it up or ask someone in the garden department if it’s safe for kids and pets.

 

 

Uncategorized , , , , , ,

Understanding Autism

April 4, 2016 2 comments

One in every 110 U.S. kids  has it, and 3.5 million Americans live with an autism spectrum disorder.  Between 2000 and 2010, autism in our nation’s children increased by 119.4%, and it’s still increasing.  In fact,  autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability in the U.S.

You probably know someone with it but think of the person as “a little off” because you don’t recognize his or her autism.

This is good month to learn about it, because it’s National Autism Awareness Month.  http://www.whathealth.com/awareness/event/nationalautismmonth.html gives an excellent summary of how autism affects a person, the characteristics you might notice, and how the American Autism Society is trying to spread the word about this condition with no known cause (no, vaccines don’t bring it on).

Another very good site is offered by Easter Seals, “Autism Signs and Symptoms,” including a list of behaviors with which you can evaluate your own child.

These sites are worth looking at, if for no other reason than they may lead people to be more tolerant and understanding rather than writing someone off as “odd,” “cold,” or “stand-offish.”

 

 

Uncategorized , , , , ,

What’s Wrong with Disinfectant Wipes?

March 2, 2016 Comments Off on What’s Wrong with Disinfectant Wipes?

Are disinfectant wipes safe for our kids?  Do they do the job we want them to do?  Are you using them properly?  Is your child’s school using them properly?  What’s in them?  Do you really need them?

These and other questions are answered in “The Trouble with Disinfectant Wipes.”  Before you buy another container of wipes, be sure to read this informative article.

 

 

Uncategorized , , , , ,

Children in Adult Prisons

July 6, 2015 Comments Off on Children in Adult Prisons

Kids in adult prisons?  Yes, in 2013 there were 6,000+ in the U.S.  These kids have few appropriate services or support as they experience sexual assault, beatings, and psychological torture.  They are more likely to try suicide than kids detained in non-adult prisons, and once they get out are 77% more likely to commit crimes.  This does NOT sound like a way to rehabilitate them–and they’re at the age when they are very able to change.  Nor is it a way to get them ready for a productive adult life on the outside.

Read more at the Credo website.  While you’re there, sign their petition to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which simply reads, “The Department of Justice must immediately launch an investigation into the practice of trying and jailing children as adults.”

 

 

Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , ,

Kids Are Not Good Business

November 17, 2014 Comments Off on Kids Are Not Good Business

This morning’s news brought a disturbing statistic: 1 in 3 American children are homeless, and 2 1/2 MILLION kids were without a home sometime during last year–so says the National Center for Family and Homelessness.  (For details, read the article in The Guardian.)   The two main causes are the impact of domestic violence and lack of affordable housing.

It’s this second cause that shouldn’t exist.  In the same news I learned that Candlestick Park in San Francisco is slated to become a luxury shopping center, hotel, and housing.  You can bet it won’t be affordable housing!  San Francisco is doing the same kind of project there that they’ve done at Hunter’s Point and the shipping yard.  The argument for the Candlestick Park venture is that it will create 3000 permanent jobs.  I can’t help wondering, though, where those service and hotel workers filling those jobs will live.  They won’t earn enough to live at that complex or anywhere else in pricey San Francisco, or down the road in nearby cities, either.  If they’re among the many under-employed homeless people, they can’t put a roof over their children’s heads.

I’d like to see the $1 BILLION this project will cost put into something more practical and humane.  We can live without another upscale shopping center, hotel, and fancy condos.  But how long can our kids survive living on the streets?

Oh, I forgot.  That wouldn’t be good business.

 

 

Uncategorized , , , , , , , , ,

Disturbing At-Play Trend

December 20, 2013 Comments Off on Disturbing At-Play Trend

Remember the excitement as a young kid of getting together with a couple of your friends to play? Maybe one would bring a ball, another his dog.  You’d run around, devising games and new rules as you went.  When you were tired, you’d stop, sit under a shade tree, and complain about your siblings or a mean teacher.  In other words, you’d hang out together, enjoying each other’s company.

Contrast that to what was on TV’s 7 on Your Side earlier this week.  The segment compared video games for parents thinking about getting one for their child for Christmas.  What interested me, though, was the scene: three young boys, presumably friends who had come together to play, sit in a circle, each totally absorbed in his own video-game world.  No words or glances were exchanged, no sharing of what was going on in the device clutched in any of the young hands.  No indication that any of them knew that anyone else was present in that intimate-looking circle. In short, no interaction.

Me and my video game. Who needs friends?

 

Uncategorized , , ,

Don’t Let them Drown

June 10, 2013 Comments Off on Don’t Let them Drown

Our kids are splashing around, having loads of fun, giggling, tossing their heads back in glee, trying to learn to float on their backs…and DROWNING.  Most of us don’t readily recognize the signs that our kids are in trouble in the water.  Until it’s too late.

Read this short but important article listing the signs of drowning and view a demonstration video.  If you have kids or even go swimming with adults, this information could very well save a life.  Click on http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/family/2013/06/rescuing_drowning_children_how_to_know_when_someone_is_in_trouble_in_the.html.

Swimmer

 

Uncategorized , , ,
  Recent Entries »