Are your kids already on social media?

When my kids were around 10 years old, they started asking for a smartphone. Specifically, for an iPhone. 

They did what all kids do. They were consistent with asking. 

My older daughter even wrote me a letter stating all of the reasons why she NEEDED to have one. 

She made promises and tried to convince me that she would be the happiest child in the world if she had a phone. 

I said NO. 

My intent was to keep them off social media and overall off the internet as much and as long as possible. But, their schools kept gearing them to use online tools for them to do their homework and projects. 

That frustrated me and it didn’t help me. 

But I persisted and continued to educate myself in case I was being unreasonable. 

As they got older they earned the privilege to use it. But, it was not without a lot of discussions and even a contract. That contract included an agreement about how to use it, what to report, and that they would...

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Have you reflected on this yet?

I’m going to make this short because I know many of you are celebrating Easter, Ramadan Karim, or Kosher and Happy Passover. 

However you are spending this week, I hope that you have an amazing time and that you’re spending it with people whose good energy refuels you. 

One thing I’d like to invite you to think about today is how much energy you’ve spent on the things and people you really care about. 

April is the beginning of the second quarter for many people who have goals that they want to accomplish before the end of June. 

So, if your goal is personal, professional, or both, take time to analyze and make necessary adjustments to your plan if needed so that you can get closer to your goal. 

Don’t forget to allow your cheerleaders to celebrate every win with you and most of all when you’re feeling burnt out, step away for a bit and then keep going. 

Lastly, include your children in your planning session so...

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3 Ways To Forgive

If you have been carrying pain caused by someone that you just can't get yourself to forgive, keep reading.

I have been reading about forgiveness in Jen Sincero’s book, “You Are a Badass”, which prompted me to think about my own hardship trying to forgive people who have deeply hurt me. 

I don’t think there is a single person in the world that can say they’ve never been hurt by someone at an emotional level. The impacts of the pain we feel vary and some are so painful that it alters the way we navigate the world and how we behave with others. 

For example, I’ve been hurt by being betrayed by some of the people I thought would never do that to me. So, for years, I didn’t allow myself to trust people. I would go as far as 80, maybe 90 percent, but no more. 

It was a way of protecting myself and to be honest, it was out of fear. I’d always heard that forgiving was for ourselves, not for the other person. 

The thing is...

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6 Tips To Consider Before Giving A Smartphone To A Child

My eldest child was born the same year that the iPhone was released for the first time. It was such a hit! And while a lot of people thought it would turn out to be a dying fad, here we are with people addicted so much to their devices that they can’t stand in lines without looking at their phones or go to the restroom without swiping through Tik Toks or Instagram reels.

It’s crazy to think that most of our youth today don’t know a world without smart devices. 

A survey conducted in 2017 by Common Sense Media showed that by age 11, a majority (53%) of kids had their own smartphone, and by 12 more than two-thirds (69%) had one.

This means that kids are becoming exposed to a lot of information sooner than they’re ready for it to include pornography. 

As a matter of fact, the average child in the U.S. accidentally finds porn between the age of 7 and 8. 

1 in 10 parents knows the code to their child’s device and 50 percent of kids admit to...

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What If My Child Is The Bully?

What were your beliefs about a bully when you were in school? I’ll be honest. Until I began doing research on bullying, I thought that kids who were bullies didn’t weren’t being parented well.

I know! Judgy!

I thought that they were just acting like either their parents or perhaps an older sibling or family member. A lot of people still think of bullies this way and you know, society overall tends to be very judgy about parents and kids.

I thought that bullies were just bad kids who loved making people like me miserable. 

But, no one ever had a conversation with me about bullying or bullies at all. 

The truth is that kids who bully are just kids who have not been taught how to deal with their emotions. Now, I’m not going to tell you that all kids who bully decide to target people for the same reason. 

There are many motivators for bullies to do what they do. But right now, I want to talk about what you should do if your child is a...

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Do You Know The Different Types of Cyberbullying?

How much do you know about cyberbullying?


According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
, “cyberbullying” was first used in 1998 and is defined as “the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person. In other words, cyberbullying is the act of bullying anywhere online. Our use of the web leaves digital footprints that can be tracked by people who know how to follow a footprint. 

 

That’s why you might have heard of some celebrities getting canceled for having posted terrible things during the early age of the internet.

 

With time and the advancement of technology, cyberbullying has increased, but the protection laws for cyberbullying (as well as other forms of bullying) have not caught up with it. 

 

Cyberbullying is bullying online. The acts are repeated and aimed at shaming, slurring, angering, humiliating, or causing any negative distress to another person. Like bullying, cyberbullying has not been federally defined in...

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Do you say sorry too much?

The practice of eliminating repetitive “sorry” statements might not seem so harmful, or important, but hear me out. 

Research finds that women have a lower offense threshold, meaning that they tend to apologize significantly more than men.

This matters a lot because when women don’t say sorry at all or as much, they are perceived as too cold, not nice, b*!chy, or bossy. 

Always saying sorry is also used as a way to deflect tension and awkwardness and it is also used as a way to show uncertainty or self-doubt. 

Most importantly, when people overuse the word “sorry”, really apologies come off as insincere or meaningless. 

Eliminating this habit will help you become more assertive, develop a strong voice and increase your confidence. On a bigger scale, you will help change society’s view of what assertive women are like, and believe it or not, this helps us get closer to being treated equally.

So, here are some examples of how...

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What advice do you wish people would have given you?

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This mom missed the signs, but you don't have to.

Your child might be exhibiting signs of bullying and you might miss them if you don't know what to look for.

I was speaking to a parent this past week who was feeling awful for not having listened to her child. 

You see, her child had been bullied for a while. She thought that her incidents were not that bad. Then, months later she found out that her child was experiencing extreme symptoms from her bullying experiences. 

Her child was having panic attacks, couldn’t sleep, and got physically sick often. Her child kept asking to stay home and then one day, her child just refused to go to school.  

After long talks and some therapy sessions, this mom found out that the bullying experiences had been very consistent over the course of a year. Furthermore, she found out that teachers had been part of the bullying as well. 

Sadly, this happens. That’s why it’s important for parents to ask as many questions as possible to find out what kids are...

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Kids talk about world problems more than you think.

It’s been a heavy week, hasn’t it? 

There were several shootings this week, but the one that’s been highlighted the most is the one in Uvalde, Texas.

I have to be honest. I have been avoiding reading or listening to a lot of it because my emotional bandwidth just can’t take it right now. That doesn’t mean I don’t care. I certainly do. But, I have to limit my consumption of things that I am aware will be too much to handle at the time.

One thing I've had to do regardless of how I feel is to check in with my kids to find out how they're doing. I know that the answers might not be ideal. I don’t expect them to feel like the world is an amazing place and that they will feel 100 percent safe and secure. 

But, I want to make sure that they know I am there for them and that they can ask me any questions. 

That’s the job of a parent, right? No matter what is going on, we never stop being there for our kids. 

So, I want...

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1 of 3 kids admits to having been bullied.

Most kids NEVER tell an adult that they're being bullied because they try to handle the situation alone or they fear that telling an adult might make matters worse. 

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