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Health & Fitness

Parenting My Kids Around Technology

Technology. I am a little scared of it and a lot reliant on it. I love that as my ability to retrieve nouns disappears, I can go online and with very little effort, find the name of the book or the name of the person I can’t remember. I am grateful that as a direction-challenged person, I can have a car with GPS. 

Yet, like most people, when technology doesn’t work, I become unhinged and utter panic sets in. For me, when GPS tells me that the satellite was lost, I am up the proverbial creek and I can barely breathe. 

That same feeling of panic arises when I think of my kids and their technology. My older three children are out of the house so whatever lessons I failed to instill are irrelevant at this point. But I do have a responsibility to my two teenagers who are still living at home. Yet, I don’t know what that responsibility is. 

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I hear about monitoring devices and I think about researching and installing them. I think about it often but I have yet to take any concrete steps toward that end. Part of me feels overwhelmed by the options and part of me thinks my kids are smart enough to get around any restraints I impose. And, truthfully, part of me is simply lazy. 

When headline news shares another tragic story about a teen suicide as a result of online bullying, I question my judgment. When word spreads of another fatal car accident due to texting, I feel panic. And when articles alert parents to the addictive nature of online porn and its easy access, I feel remiss. 

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I want concrete steps that I can take to reduce the dangers for my teenagers. Or, I wouldn't mind validation that just talking to my kids about my fears and their responsibility is healthy parenting? I’m hoping for the second but I am willing to consider the first, as long as I get some answers. 

And I will get those answers. 

On November 7, Your Teen Media with Verizon will present an evening about technology: Keeping Up With Our Kids’ Technology.  (Corporate College East, 7-8:30pm). Fox 8 Reporter, Todd Meany will lead a discussion with Dr. Peggy Stager from sponsor MetroHealth, Brett Kyker from Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Robert Prather from Verizon and Ethan Schafer, Ph.D. from Spectrum Psychological Associates. 

To register, go to YourTeenMag.com/Register-Tech.

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