Child Development | The Parenting Center

Preparations Parents can Make for Keeping Track of Children in Crowds

Parents who have young children are in a constant state of ensuring their children are safe and accounted for, particularly while out in public. There are many situations in which a single parent is the guardian of multiple children while out in public, and this can pose a problem if environmental factors are chaotic and dense. Regrettably, situations such as this can result in children getting lost, or even abducted. Fortunately, there are some things parents can do to ensure this does not happen to them. Below are some simple to follow preparation methods parents can utilize prior to going out.

Dress Accordingly

Dress your children in bright and easily recognizable clothes if you plan on going out to a public place. This will ensure that they are easy to spot, and will not blend in. This same principle can be applied for night time outings by utilizing glow sticks that children can wear on their wrists for easy spotting.

Always Know Where Security and or Police are

Generally, in crowded places, there are some form of security and or law enforcement deployed for ensuring safety and order. Upon venturing to these places, take note of where these individuals are, should you need them in a moments notice. This will help speed up reaction time between noticing your child is missing and taking action.

Use a Stroller

For young children, employ the services of a stroller. Many people neglect the use of a stroller in crowded places due to the difficulty of maneuvering. However, it is much easier to keep track of younger children when you know they are strapped comfortably into a stroller.

Filed Under: Child Development, Parenting Tagged With: Baby transport, Child Development, Children Youth and Family

Protecting Your Teen from Cyberbullying

As a parent it is your job to protect your teenagers, sometimes even from themselves! Bullying has always been a problem, but with new technology it is an even bigger problem. With the anonymity that the internet provides, teens are faced with even more vicious bullying than ever before. In fact, otherwise friendly, good kids can participate in cyberbullying. Having that screen between you and your victim seems to give people a sense of entitlement to say whatever they want with no thought to the feelings of the victim. Things are said online that an individual would never dream of saying to a person’s face.

Parents can watch for signs that their child is being bullied by being aware of a change in their child’s behavior. Does your teen appear stressed, sad, or depressed after spending time online or on the phone? Are your teen’s grades or behavior declining? Has your teen recently been withdrawing from participating in her normal activities or refusing to participate in school sports or activities that she would normally have participated in? These things could be signs that your child is being bullied and it may be time to do some investigating to get to the bottom of things.

To protect your teen from these things there are many software programs available now that can be loaded onto computers, cell phones, iPods, and other handheld devices. These programs monitor online activities and can alert parents when there is suspicion of cyberbullying. Being aware of the problem whether your child is the victim or the perpetrator can help give you the information you need to step in and get your child the help they need.

Filed Under: Child Development, Parenting Tagged With: bully, cyber-bully

Protecting Your Child From Predators

Unfortunately in the world today there are predators lurking everywhere! They may be at the mall, at the movie theater, next door, or on the internet. You cannot be everywhere with your child all the time, but you can teach your child about things that she can do to protect herself.

At the mall or other crowded places, ensure that your child is never there alone. Discuss with your child the dangers of associating with anyone they do not know. Talk about never going anywhere with anyone they do not know personally. Meeting someone with a group of friends that day does not count as “knowing” them personally. Remind her to be aware of who she is around and who is watching her. If she ever feels uncomfortable in a situation, trust her instincts and get out of there!

Keeping your child protected in your own neighborhood is a little more difficult. Be aware of who lives in your neighborhood and if there are any registered sex offenders. Teach your children about being aware of their surroundings and let you know if anyone makes them uncomfortable.

On the internet it is a little more difficult to protect your children from predators. Internet predators are very sneaky and are able to stay hidden and anonymous. Discuss appropriate internet activities with your child. It is advisable to install parental controls and internet security software on your computer to monitor and control internet activities. This will give your child an added level of safety. However, you cannot control what your child does away from home. Therefore, it is important to talk to your child about internet safety, the dangers of internet predators, and things to watch out for.

Filed Under: Child Development Tagged With: Child Development, Internet safety

Ways to Protect Your Child-Used Family Computer

There are many paths to security risks and performance slow-downs for your computer. When you begin to let your child use the machine, you may notice even more issues. In this case, it is even more necessary to protect the family computer, and there are many programs out there that can safeguard the computer system and make sure that it keeps working at top performance. One of these is PC Tools Registry Software, which will fix any Windows Registry errors that occur, even when you or your child do not realize registry changes have taken place.

Registry issues are among some of the top problems that cause computers to slow down. It is unwise not to protect your computer in any case, let alone when your child is using it. Before you let your kid sit down and command the computer, registry software isn’t the only thing you should think about. There are various parental control programs that will allow you to set times during which your child can use the Internet, or launch certain programs. Parents can even define who a child can email, and also receive a copy of each email that is sent or received by using similar software.

Special software can even limit Web surfing to age appropriate material, based on how old your child is. These kinds of programs are important, as is PC Tools Registry Software, but you also need to consider anti-virus software. Even if parental controls are in place, as well as porn filters, viruses and other malware can infiltrate and you might not even be aware of it. You can’t expect a child to know the signs of a computer virus and alert you in time, but anti-virus programs, combined with everything else, will keep your child-friendly computer safe and let your kid grow their computer skills as well.

Filed Under: Budget, Child Development Tagged With: antivirus, Windows Registry, World Wide Web

Teach Your Child About Internet Safety

Teaching children about online safety can sometimes be very difficult. There is so much to learn and to remember. When your children are younger it is much easier to protect them and help them learn about ways to stay safe online. However, as your child ages, and especially if they were not exposed to safety protocols online when they were very young, it can become more difficult to help them understand the importance of online safety. Teenagers are especially difficult to teach, as they feel they are immune to the problems that “happen to other people” on the internet.

Even though it may be difficult to get your child or teen to understand, as a responsible parent you need to do your part to give your child the proper “tools” to keep them safe while they are online. Go over your rules of internet use and follow through on consequences when they are not followed. Check up on your children regularly. Giving your child rules and then handing over the use of the internet without ever checking to ensure that your rules are being followed is not effective.

Some of the basic rules can include never adding anyone to their “friends” lists who they do not personally know on their online social network pages. Stay out of chat pages that include strangers. Never put any personal information online such as addresses, phone numbers, etc. Never post pictures that you do not want strangers to see. It is important to help your children understand that anything that is posted on the internet can be accessed by hackers or computer savvy individuals. Once it has been sent out into cyberspace, it can be picked up by anyone. Even if something is deleted later, there is an electronic copy of it somewhere.

Filed Under: Child Development, Parenting Tagged With: Child Safety, Internet safety

Is Your Child Addicted to the Internet

With all of the other things you have to worry about with your children, now you have to be concerned about your child becoming addicted to the internet. Internet addiction has become a rising problem in today’s society. According to experts one in eight Americans is addicted to the internet. Those numbers continue to rise especially in teens and young adults.

One thing that can possibly explain this is the fact that technology is addictive simply because of its ease of use and immediate feedback. Because of the fact that children are growing up with so much online interaction they become uncomfortable when they do not have it.

There are warning signs you can watch for to determine if your teen is becoming addicted to the internet and online gaming. Is your teen’s internet usage interfering with other daily activities? Does your teen some to family dinners late, miss sports practices, get to school late, or have stopped activities he used to enjoy because of his online usage? If you are noticing your teen being overly tired in the morning he may be staying up later than normal. Your teen may have difficulty completing homework or other assignments because he cannot focus long enough due to his need to log into the computer. When you try to cut back on your teen’s internet time, does he become angry and overly irritable? If your teen has lost interest in friends, spending time outdoors, sports, or other activities that he used to be interested in this could be another warning sign.

If you feel that your teen is becoming addicted it may be time to take action. If this is a mild addiction at this point you may be able to take steps to reverse this problem. Limit your teen’s time online to no more than one or two hours a day. Be an example and do not spend time that you should be with your family online. It may be necessary to install parental monitoring software to limit sites that are available and allow you to monitor online activities.

Filed Under: Child Development Tagged With: Internet access, Internet addiction disorder

Keeping Kids Safe This Winter

There are so many things for a parent to worry about when they send their children out of the house. Who may be out there that may try to take advantage of them? What trouble may they find to get into? Protecting children is the number one responsibility that a parent has, and that means insulating them from all risks including the most basic: the elements.

The East Coast is in the midst of what may go down in history as the worst winter ever. Cities like New York are seeing big storms dumping 6 to 12 inches of snow at a time, and that means kids need to be layered up to stay warm and safe. Rapper Shaun Jay-Z Carter grew up in Brooklyn and knows how harsh the New York winters can be. He designed his Rocawear clothing line with staying warm in mind.

Rocawear features well-insulated jackets that will help block out the cold and ward off the snow. The Puffer Jacket is perfect for bitterly cold weather and comes with a fur-lined hood. The Rocawear Wool Duffel Coat is popular, as well as several leather jackets that are great for cold weather, including one just like the coat Jay-Z wore in his Empire State of Mind video shoot.

To make sure the kids are protected in cold weather, it is important to make sure they have other winter accessories as well. Rocawear offers a full line of parachute and scottie boots that are excellent for traipsing through the snow and keeping your children’s feet warm. There are also hoodies and sweatshirts for layering underneath coats to provide an extra level of warmth. For young children, there are several jacket, tees, and jeans reasonably priced that are perfect for the kids to wear throughout the day at school.

Filed Under: Child Development, Parenting Tagged With: Child Development, Clothing, Rocawear

Become Aware of Your Child’s Online Activities

With all of the technology in the world today there are many different social avenues for our children. It can be difficult to monitor everything our children are doing to keep them safe. Do you know what your child is doing when they are online? Do you know the websites he visits? How about the online friends he has? Any idea what social networks your child is visiting or how he is using them while he is online?

It is important that you become aware of your child’s online activities. The dangers to children online are real. Children are exposed to much more at a much younger age than in the past. It is very easy for predators and pedophiles to have access to your child online. Instances of cyberbullying is getting out of control. Through the online world your child may be dealing with harassment or your child might even be the one who is bullying or harassing. The “protection” of the online world seems to bring out the worst in some people.

Completely shutting your child away from the outside world is not the answer to protecting him. As a parent there are things you can do to help reduce the risks. It is your job as a parent to instruct your child. Teach your child about online dangers. Assure your child that you will be keeping track of their online activities. Let your child know that you love them and are just watching out for their safety. Discuss appropriate internet use, expectations, and consequences for improper use or any incident of your child participating in harassment or cyberbullying.

You need to be proactive in monitoring your child’s online behavior. This can be accomplished by frequently checking browsing histories, installing and using parental controls, installing an internet filter and/or a type of parental “spy” program. Your child may see this as an invasion of their privacy; you should see this as good parenting!

Filed Under: Child Development, Parenting Tagged With: Child Development, Parent

How to Keep Your Children Safe Around Dogs

: Image via Wikipedia

Everybody has heard a story on the news about a family dog biting or attacking a young child. While these stories might be horrifying, in most cases they could have been prevented. In the same way that you teach a child to respect an adult, you must also teach a child to respect a dog. Dogs always give some type of signal before they bite or attack. This could be anything from a growl to a stiffening of the body.

Adults supervision is essential in keeping your child safe around a dog. No matter how reliable the dog’s behaviour may have been in the past, its behaviour can never be predicted with 100% accuracy. You should never leave a child alone with any dog. Remember that you should always take more precautions when a strange child visits because your dog may tolerate an action from your child, but not someone else’s. If you cannot be on the scene to supervise your child and the dog, put the dog up and out of the child’s reach.

You dog should be trained and socialized properly. This includes obedience training from an early age. If a dog does not receive proper training, then the dog will rely on his natural instincts. The dog should learn to obey commands in all types of conditions including stressful and distracting conditions. This could mean the difference in saving a dog’s life or saving a child. Any dog will bite under the right conditions. The dog automatically wants to assert dominance over the child to move up in the hierarchy of the family “pack”. Ground rules need to be laid down and followed by both the dog and the child. The child should be taught to not wave food around, not to tease or taunt the dog, and to always remain in control by giving a command before a reward.

Filed Under: Child Development Tagged With: Bite, Dog, Obedience training