“I’m addicted to my phone!” – said no kid EVER
Does your screenager consider his device to be a firmly implanted eleventh digit on his hand? Does the suggestion of a wi-fi free holiday in the bush cause a less than pleasant reactionary push-back, mild panic and desperate requests to stay at home? Well there are words for this typical cluster of ‘teen-minus device’ tantrums – it’s called nomophobia!
How to talk to your kids about the senseless violence they are seeing on their screens
As another school shooting is lighting up our kids’ screens, the ‘Hard to Have; chat is here again. As parents, we need to once again confront how we talk to our kids about the violence they are either catching glimpses of on their newly acquired devices or the violence they are witnessing on TV as they walk to the living area. Whatever your younger child’s age, here are eight ‘good chat’ fundamentals for any ‘Hard-to-Have’ chat.
The backlash to Instagram is here baby! BeReal is REAL!
BeReal is an alternative social media app that seeks to give our t(w)eens a more unfiltered look at each other’s lives. The best part -BeReal is known for its ONCE A DAY ONLY photo policy.
While BeReal goes a long way in reducing the huge anxiety our screenagers feel from the constant comparison to everyone else’s perfectly curated feeds, it is not without its risks
EUPHORIA, not just another teen love story – a hard NO from us
Euphoria has captured the teen world by storm. If your teen isn’t watching the series, they have more than likely heard about, spoken about it with their friends or come across snippets of it on TikTok. We don’t often say this when it comes to online content, we give this show a HARD NO for teens. Here is why and how you talk to your teens about it even if they haven’t seen it (yet)
How to talk to your child about the war in Ukraine
Although the Russian invasion, for our kids, is playing out several thousand kilometers from home, social media can make it seem like it is all happening next door.
Tragic, frightening and violent images of the Ukraine are flooding TikTok and Insta reels. So, while your child may or may not be watching the news, they are certainly being exposed to the horror of yet another war
Ghosting: what every parent needs to know
Ghosting?! What does it mean and why does it hurt so much?
If you, like so many parents, have to help your child through the really tricky terrain of being ghosted, check out our latest blog for everything you need to know
The Tinder Swindler: why the latest Netflix binge is relevant to your teens
The Tinder Swindler,” the latest Netflix binge that everyone is talking about, follows three women who all went on the popular dating app, Tinder and matched with “Simon Leviev”. Whether your kids are old enough to watch the documentary or not, it’s a great opportunity for some important conversations around AFFIRMATION, and what underlies the need of all of us to hear “you are special to me”
Just because you pee a lot…does not mean you have diabetes
TikTok has become the latest space where tweens and teens come to vent, joke, taunt and now SELF-DIAGNOSE in relation to their mental health challenges. While this has provided our screenagers greater awareness and a sense of community around previously “shameful” issues like ADD, OCD, anxiety and depression, it has also brought a proliferation of misinformation and all too hasty self-diagnoses….
YARN – the chat fiction app that makes our kids read – really?
If you have ever been given a friend’s message thread to read and found it intriguing, then you may have an idea why Yarn is more than exciting for our screenagers, despite it being anything BUT appropriate. Here is everything parents need to know.
Avoid screen zombies AND get your kids out the bedroom this holiday
After a VERY long and very hard year, how do we manage our tw/eens and their screens this holiday without turning into a monster or throwing the xBox/iPad/phone into the ocean in the hope that that this is the ONLY thing to actually get your screenager to emerge from their cave.
Here are some ideas on how to get the screenagers off the screen AND out the bedroom these holidays
