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Things come and go so quickly these days. It seems like fashions and trends are only in the public focus for a few months at a time before they vanish and quickly become uncool. As a result, our lives are so quick to change and what is normal right now might look very different to the normality of a decade or two ago.

That means that you will no doubt notice that the certain parenting rules and guides that your parents swore by when they were bringing you up might no longer apply these days to your own kids. In fact, trying to keep up to date with all of the current parenting guidance and best practices can be a minefield. Even parents who have teenagers and have been parenting for quite some time can feel a bit overwhelmed with what they are supposed to do.

As a result, it is really critical that you try and keep up with the changing world and become a modern parent who is able to deal with all of the trials and tribulations that the modern world brings to your children. Only then will you be able to keep them as safe and secure as possible. Using Talkspace is a great option also!

Ready to change your parenting style for the better? Here are the new parenting rules for 21st-century parents. Hopefully, they will help you improve your parenting skills so that you are ready to take on this changing modern world.

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Always Use Parental Controls

Lots of parents try and restrict their young children’s use of technology. It might be easy enough to keep it away from toddlers, but there is going to be a point (often a lot sooner than expected) when you are going to have to give in and let your kids use your devices. In fact, some parents are happy to let their young children get used to smartphones and tablet devices as it can teach them some key tech skills that they might need later on in their life. However, when you do have over all of this tech, you should always take advantage of the parental controls that are available to make sure your kids aren’t exposed to any age-inappropriate content. Lots of broadband suppliers, such as i3 Broadband now offer family-friendly packages that make it easy to control what your kids see and what they are kept away from. Once you have your parental controls locked down, you will find that you can leave your kids to browse the internet and play games without too much to worry about.

#SteveJobs never let his children use an #iPad. Find out why:#tech #careers #infosec #cybersecurity #apple #iphone #ceo #entrepreneur #motivation #smartcity #automation #robotics #IoT #bigdata pic.twitter.com/afy6DIsTJT

— Anson McCade AUS (@AnsonMccadeAus) April 13, 2018

Set Passwords Yourself

Whenever your child needs to set up an account online for whatever reason – maybe it is to play a game, for instance – you should always be there when they do this. It is also necessary that you set their passwords for them. That way, you will always have access to their account and so can keep an eye on their online activity. You might be worried that this could count as an invasion of privacy, but that really isn’t the case. After all, it is a lot better to double check on what they get up to online when you aren’t watching to make sure that they are safe and protected from any pedophiles and cyberbullying. Just remember that once they start to get older, you will need to step away and let them create their own passwords so that they know you trust them. But while they are still under ten-years-old, it’s always necessary to track their passwords.

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Communicate Well With Their School

It is always important that parents and their children’s schools communicate well with one another. This ensures that both parties are well aware of any issues that the child may be going through at home and in the classroom. Not only that, though, but this also gives you a chance to find out all about the school rules regarding technology. Not every school may be happy about their pupils taking smartphones in with them. If this is the case, you need to be aware so that you can stop your child taking any prohibited tech in with them. It’s also a good idea to find out what your child has been learning in their IT lessons so that you can reinforce these lessons at home when they use tech and computers at home.

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Step Away From Social Media

Children always learn best through example. So, it is always necessary for you and your partner to be shining examples in everything that you do that your children see. That way, they will find it a lot easier to pick up good habits from the both of you. This also counts when it comes to all things tech as well. One great thing that all parents need to start doing is to step away from their social media accounts. If your kids grow up to see you attached to your Facebook or Twitter apps on your phone, then they will think that this is an incredibly normal thing to do. They will then pick up this habit and grow up addicted to social media. So, be sure to put your smartphone away when you are around your kids. Not only does this prevent them getting into any bad habits themselves, but it also helps you focus your attention on them so that you can spend some quality time together as a family.

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Don’t Post Photos Of Your Child Online Without Their Consent

Right now there is a big debate raging about whether it is ethical or not to post photos of your children online on the likes of Facebook and Instagram. There is a growing group of people who argue that it is never ok to do so as it is impossible to get informed consent from children who are under the legal age. After all, they might end up embarrassed when they get older by some of the pictures that were circulated of them online. Some parents also prevent their children’s pictures from being posted anywhere online to prevent any privacy risks or their image being stolen in identity theft. So, you need to really think carefully about how you handle your photographs of your kids and whether or not you post them online.

Our Internet of Things event: a great success! See our blog rbkclibraries.wordpress.com. Good things happen when children and technology meet! #internetofthings #codingforkids #childrentechnology #library #libraryevents

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Don’t Leave Your Kids Alone With Tech

There is probably no wonder that many parents really worry about the effects of technology on their children. Not only can heavy use of tech become quite addictive, but it can also pose a danger from external threats, such as hackers, criminals, and sexual predators. There is one easy way around this, though – just don’t leave your children alone with any technology. You should always supervise children who are under ten years of age when they are using any devices or computers. Pre-teens and young teenagers should also be carefully monitored, though it is not necessary to watch over their shoulder at all times. After all, you need to start giving them some space so that they can learn about being responsible tech users on their own.  

Today on the blog: what’s on Stella’s iPad? Link in my bio. || #blog #momblog #blogger #momblogger #blogging #top10 #learning #earlychildhood #learningapps #app #appreview #children #kidslearn #toddler #preschooler #toddlerapps #preschool #preschoolapps #ipad #iguy #technology #childrentechnology #kidsandtech #techrules #momlife #kidlife #toddlerlife #littleoneslearn #teachingtoddlers #totschool

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Don’t Expose Them To On-Demand TV Too Early

For some parents, on-demand TV channels are an absolute godsend. That’s because they can put on an episode of Peppa Pig whenever their kids want to watch it – it’s no longer necessary to wait until the show is scheduled to be on TV and you also don’t need to spend a lot of money to buy the DVDs. However, even it’s important that you don’t introduce on-demand TV to your kids while they are still very young. Otherwise, they might simply end up demanding the TV all the time! This could be very stressful for you as they might start to throw a tantrum when you say now. So, it’s a good idea to wait until your kids are old enough to understand that they can’t watch TV all day every day. That way, your on-demand TV won’t become such a burden.

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Don’t Google Your Child’s Symptoms

We all know about Dr. Google and I daresay that a few of you might have even used him to look up some of your own symptoms at times when you have been under the weather. However, it is really important that you don’t do a Google search for any symptoms that your child starts to show. This will only cause you to panic a lot when there might not be anything to worry about. So, instead of heading over to Google at the first sign of a child’s illness, you should instead simply book an appointment with your family doctor. They will examine your child and be able to prescribe any necessary medication and treatment. That way, you won’t have to worry about using Google to misdiagnose your child. So, remember – when in doubt, you should always go straight to your family doctor.

Hopefully, all of these rules for 21st-century parents will help you bring up your children into responsible and respectful adults. Good luck!

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If you have kids in college or are perhaps heading to college yourself, then you’ll know just how much it can cost.

Even if we were to put the tuition fees to one side, the costs quickly mount up and can spiral out of control when it comes to the social life of a student.  When you look at the cost of rent, living expenses, travel costs and so on it can really mount up.

Indeed, the prospect of sending kids to college can be an uphill struggle for many families financially which is why this article looks at a number of ways for students can make an extra income while at a college or in preparation for the college years.

If you’re looking for a more frugal way to provide a decent college education, the majority of major universities are now offering distance learning opportunities; and online courses aren’t limited to basic vocational training, today you can do advanced courses like an online bba program that offer huge savings in terms of fees plus living costs.

In any event, it’s always good for teenagers to earn some extra income to help fund their studies and lifestyle, so here are five simple ideas to provide some food for thought.

1. FLIP THRIFT STORE ITEMS ON EBAY

A quite enjoyable way to make money is to treasure hunt around thrift stores and yard sales, looking for items that you know have a strong desire on eBay.  Often, people aren’t aware of the value that’s in amongst the vats of items in thrift stores and with a bit of careful research and rummaging around boxes, you can find some incredible high-profit deals.

2. SELL FREE ITEMS

Lots of people have items that are “free to a good home”, presuming you have the means and manpower to come and pick them up.  You could simply use eBay, but If you match this with people putting requests in the ‘want to buy’ sections of newspapers and online listings, such as Craigslist this will be the most efficient and reliable way to ensure you are gathering items that you can sell on; after-all, you don’t want to have to rent out a storage unit just to put things nobody wants in storage.  

3. DONATE BLOOD PLASMA

There’s a limit to how much you can make doing this, as there is a restriction to how many times a week you can attend, but typically your time investment would be around three hours per week in order to make $250 to $350 per month.  Understandably, this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but it’s a rewarding way to make money on the basis your blood plasma is necessary to help fuel life-saving operations.

4. MOW LAWNS

In the summer months, if you charge $25 per lawn, and mow ten lawns a week (basically a weekend’s work) you’ll make $250 per week – that’s a $1,000 per month… and the best part of this is that once you get regular customers, you can build up a monthly ‘round’ of appointments that generate a reliable stream of income; and doesn’t require you constantly getting new customers.

5. BABYSIT

Babysitting can be easy money.  If you’re lucky, the kids will be asleep most the time, and you’ll get free time in someone’s home to study or earn even more income by, as an example, being paid to browse websites or answer online questionnaires.

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Sometimes you can take a moment to look at your life and be baffled by how you ended up where you are. This can be a positive thing or a negative thing. If your alarm clock going off in the morning fills your heart with dread and you have to talk yourself into getting up; if you spend your days counting down the minutes till you get to go home; if you spend your Sunday afternoon getting steadily more unhappy because you have to get back to work in the morning, it might be time for a change. But what do you do?     You  know you don’t want to stay where you are, but you don’t know what to do instead, and committing to something new is a scary decision to make. Below are just three of the many options you have when it comes to making a drastic career change.                     

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Use your current skills and interests

The first and easiest path to a new career is to ask yourself a simple question: What am I good at? Grab a pen and make a list. What do you enjoy doing and what areas do you excel in? It might be something completely irrelevant – like you’ve always enjoyed painting – but put it on the list anyway. Once you’ve got that list, see what jobs there are that fit with those skills and attributes. You may be surprised what careers could be a good fit for you.

Work from home

If working from home seems like a good fit for you, you could look into the many opportunities available to earn an income without having to deal with the daily rush hour commute. You could start a blog, become a realtor, work as a solo recruitment consultant, or write professional reviews for products. You could even set up your own online business if you have a product or service that could be of use to people. Many companies will pay individuals to manage their online presence on social media, responding to queries and complaints in a timely and professional manner. The possibilities are endless, and you can do them all in your pyjamas if you really wanted to.

Training, qualifications, and education

If being your own boss doesn’t sound appealing to you, and you have an interest but lack the necessary qualifications, it may be time to go back to school. Not literally, but in the evenings using a distance learning course. There are a huge range of courses available, so whatever your interest or aspiration, you will be able to become highly qualified and employable in it. Even if you’re still not entirely sure what new career you want to take, there are subjects which will open many avenues. If you can master lean manufacturing, for instance, many companies, in a wide variety of fields, would be interested in employing you.

Hopefully, these tips will help you to fight your way out of your career rut, and settle into something a little more in keeping with your interests and aspirations. It’s never too late to do what you love; you just have to be brave enough to take that first leap.

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So, the time has finally come – your child is at the age where they are about to move out to start the next chapter of their life at college! This can be a very exciting time for them as it will be their first chance to lead a completely independent life. However, you and your partner might find that you don’t find it quite as exciting! Many parents are often quite sad at the thought of their kids moving out and leaving them. They might also feel slightly stressed about the situation as they might question whether their child really is ready to head out into the adult world.

Are you worried that your child might not be ready for their next chapter? Well, if not, there are plenty of ways you can help them out. Take all the following tips for example. If you try and carry out all the advice I offer in this blog post, you should find that waving goodbye to your kids as they leave for college shouldn’t be so upsetting or stressful after all!

Encourage Them To Study

First of all, you should help them get a place at college in the first place. There is only one way they will be able to guarantee a place for themselves – with plenty of studying! So, you need to make sure that your teens have a positive relationship with homework and studying. The best way to ensure that they are willing to carry out all of their assignments and home projects is to never pressurize them to study too much. Sure, a gentle nudge to start working is fine but if you are too strict, you will find that they might be way too likely to rebel against you and not study. As well as not being too strict, you should create a peaceful study area for them where they can get on with all their homework. Ideally, a desk in their own bedroom. If they only have a small bedroom with hardly any spare space for a desk, then it’s worth turning a spare bedroom into a study. You can always revert it back to a spare room once they have moved out.

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Help Them Save

Money is one of the major downsides of going to college. Tuition fees are extremely high these days and many students end up leaving college with lots of debt. So, encouraging them to save as much money as possible for college before they move out can be a great help to them. They’ll then be able to save up a sizeable lump sum that can go towards their rent or tuition fees. That way, they won’t have to rely on so many loans throughout their time at college. If they are allowed to take a part-time job alongside their studies, then you should encourage them to do so as this can help ease the financial pressure as well. However, not every college gives their students permission to work alongside their studies, so they need to make sure that it is ok before they accept a job. Otherwise, they could end up in trouble with their professors!

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Give Them Advice When Flat Hunting

If your child isn’t moving into student accommodation then they will have to find their own flat. They will be completely new to flat hunting and this could be a very alien experience to them. Your help could certainly help them when it comes to finding a suitable flat! First of all, remind them that they have a very specific budget, and it is really important they don’t end up overspending each month in rent. Not only that, though, but they should also carefully consider the location of their new flat. It needs to be close enough to college so that they can easily get to all their lectures and seminars, but it also needs to be in a fairly affordable area that has plenty of amenities, such as supermarkets and doctor’s practices. You might find that your child wants to live in a very expensive area just because it has a reputation for being trendy and has plenty of bars and restaurants. If possible, try and persuade them from the hip neighborhoods so that they can save on their monthly rent!

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Help With The Move

If you’ve moved house yourself, you will already be very aware that moving everything from one property to another can be exceptionally difficult. One of the best things you can do to help is offer the use of your car for your child’s big move. As they will only have a bedroom-full of stuff to move, you should be able to get all of their belongings into the car. It might be a bit of a squeeze but at least they won’t have to waste money on a hire van!

Get Them Online

Once your child is in their new flat, you should get them online as soon as possible. It can sometimes take a couple of months for an internet company to set up a new account at an address so, if possible, you should set up their account before they have moved in. It’s really important that your child has an internet connection so that they can carry out their work and studies from home. Not only that, though, but it allows you to keep in touch via the likes of Skype. And, if they don’t live close to any supermarkets, they will be able to order their weekly grocery shop online. When you are looking for a reliable internet for your child to go with, you will need to find one that offers a decent amount of GB each month at an affordable price. Some companies now offer Netflix subscriptions with their accounts, so it’s worth looking for one that offers this kind of deal if your child likes to stream their favorite movies and TV shows.

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Give Tips For Keeping Utilities Down

As a homeowner and parent, you will be very skilled at trying to keep all of your household bills down to a minimum. It’s now time to pass this skill onto your child. Otherwise, they could find that their monthly utility bills come as quite a shock! So, it’s worth telling them that they shouldn’t have their heating on all day every day, even during the winter months. It should be perfectly fine to put the heating on for a couple of hours first thing in the morning. This should keep the chill off, and their apartment should retain the heat for a good few hours. They might then need to put it back on for a couple of hours in the evening. Turning lights out in rooms that they aren’t in will also keep their electricity bill down to a minimum as well. When it comes to the weekly shop, you should encourage them to start collecting coupons as this can really cut the cost of groceries. Teaching them how to batch cook and free portions of meals will also help them keep their costs down as well.

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Remind Them Of Maintaining A Good Life Balance

Sure, going off to college is all about studying and working hard to earn a degree. But it’s also about having some fun and enjoying yourself! In fact, this second part of life at college or uni can often be taken a bit too seriously by all of the students! So, you need to let your child know that it’s perfectly fine for them to enjoy a good social life and go to parties and nights out, but that isn’t the main reason why they are at college – they also need to have plenty of time to study and do all their assignments as well! If they don’t, they might end up really struggling to get the grades that they need. But, at the same time, they shouldn’t overdo it when it comes to hitting the books. In fact, this could be very unproductive as they might end up getting very stressed and burning out. It’s all about getting the balance just right!

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Schedule Phone Calls

Now that your child no longer lives with you, you will both end up on very different schedules.  Both of you might be very busy with your various commitments, but it’s still important that you try and find the time to have a phone call or Skype call together at least once a week. This gives you the chance to check in with your child and gives them the chance to ask you any questions or ease any feelings of homesickness that they might have. Ideally, you should find a time that suits you every week and stick to it as often as possible. That way, you don’t have to miss your weekly phone call!

Watching your children grow up and move out to college can be very upsetting, but you should also feel very proud of them. Look how far they’ve come!

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College is one of the natural educational progressions that people make nowadays. It’s essential for getting a good chance at entering a well-known university and it’s one of the most important points of your child’s life. However, trying to get your child motivated for school can be difficult, especially when they don’t seem interested in learning new skills. It can be a troublesome time, but thankfully, there are many ways to motivate your kid to prepare for college.

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Inspire Your Children

A great way to get your kids to stay in school is to inspire them. Whether it’s by showing them around different museums or teaching them about modern technology, there are plenty of ways to inspire your children and give them the motivation to study. A good way to motivate your children is to let them be in control of what they learn as much as possible. If your child loves space and wants to learn about astronomy, then support their decision by buying books and software related to space. If your child loves music, then give them some basic guides on how to produce music or simple piano lessons. Letting your children control their own destiny is important, so let them decide what they want to learn no matter how strange it may sound. The important thing is to not limit their decisions or force them into doing something they don’t enjoy.

Browse Your Options

Thanks to many services such as Ivy Select, it’s now possible to get consulting on the options your child has for college. Maybe your child wants to get into an ivy league college because they take their studies seriously, or perhaps they want to become an actor but you don’t know what schools are good for performing arts. When possible, browse the options on the internet and look at the top schools for various fields. Work your way down the list and discuss what choices are practical from a financial perspective. Don’t forget that college tuition is expensive and the more prestigious the school is, the more expensive it’s going to be. You don’t want to give your child false dreams about getting into a well-known ivy league school, so make sure you set realistic expectations or let them know that they’ll have to work incredibly hard to make it in.

Always Encourage Them

Never put your children down. Whether it’s a strange topic they decided to study or poor test results, never give your child negative feedback. It’s important to support your child as best as possible by giving them as much positive encouragement you can. Try and show an interest in whatever your child is learning. For instance, if your child wants to learn how to draw, then encourage them by complimenting their drawings and convincing them to take a sketchpad with them when you’re on a family holiday. If you have an interest in the things they want to learn, then it also gives you a way to bond with your child.

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