Book Preview: Phone Control = Kid Control

It is clear that we are now addicted to our phones. Go to any airport and you'll see tons of people locked to their devices as if they are being controlled by their bright little screen.  This is even more true when it comes to children.  The kids of today have been born in an age of social media and information that drives them to be dependent on their smartphones.  This creates a perfect opportunity to use these devices as a parenting tool.  Below are some ways to leverage you kids phone addiction to keep them safe and discipline them:

1. Use the "Family Locator" app - This is a great app to that allows  you to track your kids whereabouts.

2. Control your kids data usage - On most large carriers there are limits of how much data that you use.  This data can often be controlled for each phone.  Threatening to take a kid's ability to use data for all their vine videos, and kik is enough to get most teens to straighten up.

3 .  Use the "Cozi" app  for chores for the kids - Keeping up with home chores can be challenging. By using an app like cozi you can make sure that any and all chores are clearly defined to your kids. They also can update you when they have completed their tasks regardless of where you are.

These tips and more are in my upcoming book : "The Tech Savvy Parent".

Cure Children of Convenient Alzheimer's with Evolve SMS

For those that have children, like myself, it is a well known fact that children have Convenient Alzheimer's.  I have no medical evidence of this, but when I tell my kids that something needs to be done, and it is not in the next five minutes, this condition creeps up and over takes them.  I have found a cure and it's scheduled text messages through Evolve SMS. Evolve SMS is a great SMS replacement with some nice features.  I only use it for scheduling SMS messages. The way I use it is whenever I have a task that will be in the next few days for my kids I set up three scheduled texts:

1.  First text asking them to do the task (ex. "wash the car").

2. Second text asking if they started (ex. "how's that car wash going?").

3. Third a text asking that they confirm (ex. "let me know when you get that done").

With a little help we can rid our children of this horrible disease.

Resource:

EvolveSMS