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January 21, 2015January 21, 2015

Suddenly, Parenting is a National Debate, Again.

Parenting was yet again thrust onto the national debate stage this week. A pair of Maryland parents are under investigation for letting their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter walk home from their nearby community park by themselves, as covered by the Washington Post.

CNN reporter Kelly Wallace asks ”have things suddenly gotten way out of hand when parents are being arrested — or investigated — for doing what was considered totally normal and appropriate not long ago?”

Did you walk home from school in your elementary school years? Would you let your kids? Do you think your community is safer now or when you were a kid? Most states don’t have an age regulation on the books when it’s considered negligent to leave kids alone, but putting your child at risk could be considered a crime.

Parenting today is under a microscope by many, and parenting in the digital age is proving to be more complex than imaginable. Data is now showing that our kids are at risk just as much digitally as they are physically. This increased parenting complexity, and risk to our children, has sparked major creative technology innovations for parenting in the digital age. MamaBear, the Ultimate Parenting App™, provides an all-in-one tool for peace of mind parenting, and managing your family through today’s complicated social issues.

It is clearly important that parenting remain top-of-mind and the subject of healthy discussion. This incident raises awareness of the need for parents to protect not only their children, but also themselves, throughout the parenting process. By availing themselves of the latest advances in parenting tools, such as location-based services, social media monitoring, and driving alerts, parents can find it easier to maneuver through the ever shifting sands of today’s social landscape and parent in the style that best suits them.

What if Rafi Meitiv, walking home from the park that day, showed his smartphone to the police officer who stopped and said, “My parents know exactly where I am.” Could it have been different?

Photo credit: Meitiv family photo used on WashingtonPost.com

January 20, 2015January 20, 2015

Best Apps for Moms in 2015

Make it a more enjoyable, organized, and productive year with these top apps for moms.

1.WebMD

If parents had it their way, a real doctor would be living in their house to answer their questions about bumps, bruises, and ailments. WebMD is the doctor in your pocket. The health app has an easy to use “symptom checker” that helps parents identify potential conditions or issues, and it also includes physician-reviewed content on healthy living and first aid tips.

Free: Available on iTunes and Google Play

2. Shopkick

You already need to do a lot of shopping for your family, so why not get rewarded for it? This app that Oprah.com called “addictive,” shares the best deals near you and awards you points for visiting stores like Best Buy, Target, Macy’s and more. Points are then redeemable for gift cards.

Free: Available on iTunes and Google Play

3. Mint

With multiple accounts between you and your family, accurate budgeting can be difficult. But Mint makes it easy to view and organize all of your expenses. With the finance app, you can create a budget and track your spending, as well as set up bill reminders and view your investments and credit score.

Free: Available on iTunes and Google Play

4. TeamSnap

An official partner of MamaBear and one of our favorites for staying on top of our kids’ team sports. It truly is the best online sports team management application for coaches, managers and organizers. It offers players and parents mobile notifications and email reminders keeping us informed and organized. Share it with your coaches as new sports seasons begin.

Free: Available for iTunes and Google Play

5. ChoreMonster

Finally a tool that make chores feel fun! Through ChoreMonster, you can assign chores to your child’s account. The chores show in their version of the app and are gamified for their amusement. When kids complete a chore, they earn points, rewards, and “monsters” from the app’s Monster Carnival game wheel.

Free: Available for iTunes and GooglePlay

Related: The Best Apps for Parents in 2014

6. Evernote

If you find yourself writing notes on scraps of papers that you later lose — Evernote is the app for you. With this productivity app, you can access all of your notes in one place even if you are different devices. The app enables you to save notes, to-do lists, travel reservations, receipts, and photos in your account accessible on mobile devices, tablets, and desktops.

Free: Available for iTunes and Google Play

7. Nike Training Club

A personal trainer in your phone, the Nike Training Club app will help you stay in shape anytime, anywhere. The app includes complete fitness programs and 100 workouts by Nike Master Trainers that you can watch on your device or connect to view on your television. Plus, you don’t have to miss out on the support and camaraderie of a live trainer and gym team. The Nike Training Club app (which tracks your progress) offers tips and motivation from its team of trainers and your connected friends.

Free: Available on iTunes and Google Play

8. Allrecipes Dinner Spinner

Coming up dinner ideas is never a problem with Allrecipes Dinner Spinner. Over 30 million home cooks have contributed to its collection of recipes, food photos, ratings, and reviews. If you aren’t sure where to start, use the Dinner Spinner (iPhone only) to shake your phone and find new recipes. Or look through unique recipe collections and search by ingredients, cooking time, and dietary need. Save all your recipes in your online Allrecipes Recipe Box.

Free: Available on iTunes and Google Play

9. Grocery iQ

Simplify your grocery shopping with Grocery iQ. Choose your favorite items from their database of millions of items then easily create and recreate shopping lists. Use the tool to find coupons on your favorite items, and sync the app with the rest of your family so they can add items to your list.

Free: Available on iTunes and Google Play

10. MamaBear

Connect and protect your loved ones with our family safety app that shares important news about your child’s virtual and physical activities. With MamaBear, you can sync with your child’s social media accounts, receive notifications when they get new friends and followers, and view their sharing activity. The app also features one-click check-ins and GPS services so you can have peace of mind knowing your child’s location and status.

Free: Available on iTunes and Google Play

Do you have any other apps you can’t live without in 2015? Share your favorites in the comments below.

January 16, 2015

MamaBear’s Most Popular Posts in 2014

2014 was the biggest year yet for kids and parents experiencing life in the digital world. To help parents navigate their families across all the challenges, MamaBear published dozens of articles for parents looking for online safety tips, teenage social media trends, and advice about digital parenting. Among all the great content, following are the 5 most popular posts our readers loved the most.

1. MamaBear’s List of Apps Parents Should Ban

It may seem like an oxymoron, but in 2014, the big trend in social media apps was secrecy.

Multiple apps that allowed users to create anonymous accounts became popular with tweens and teens — which created a problem for parents.

The anonymity offered by apps like Whisper, Secret, Ask.fm and others put many youths at risk for being bullied, harassed, or approached by dangerous strangers. Parents used MamaBear’s List of Apps Parents Should Ban to get them in the know.

2. Top Five Messaging Apps for Tweens and Teens

The post gave parents a look at the popular apps kids are using to communicate with their friends (and possibly even strangers).

WhatsApp Messenger
Kik
LINE
SnapChat
Viber

We heard a lot about SnapChat this year and most recently about a hack of third party SnapChat apps leading to hundreds of thousands of photos leaked online. We covered some highpoints about the media coined “Snappening.”

3. The Best Apps for Parents in 2014

Last year wasn’t all about apps for kids. Our MamaBear parents appreciated The Best Apps for Parents in 2014 throughout the year with helpful, time-saving and fun apps that parents could enjoy.

iReward Chart
Evite
Cozi Family Organizer
Open Table
Fandango
Great Clips
Splice
Allrecipes Dinner Spinner
Fav Today
MamaBear

Looking for even more apps for parents? Stay tuned. MamaBear will be releasing the 2015 list of the best apps for moms in our next blog post.

4. Tips For Giving Your Child Their First Smartphone For the Holidays

Giving the responsibility of a cell phone to a child is a nerve-racking experience for most parents. So it’s no surprise that our post Tips For Giving Your Child Their First Smartphone For the Holidays was one of the year’s most popular.

The post explains how a cell phone for your child can be beneficial to both child and parent when the proper steps are followed. Read details of our recommended process to include:

Setting Parental Controls
Discussing Usage and Set Limits
Reviewing Social Media Guidelines, Privacy, and Rules
Creating Your Own Cell Phone Contract
Installing an App that Connects and Protects

This article isn’t just a holiday read. It’s an excellent resource for parents who are about to give phones to their kids any time of the year.

5. Dangers of Talking to Strangers Online

Learning that nearly 60% of teens have received an email or instant message from a stranger online made the Dangers of Talking to Strangers Online an important topic for 2014.

Parents used the article to learn about a new list of chat apps and common chat slang that kids use to hide the meaning of their messages from their parents.

These are just a few of the family safety and digital parenting resources MamaBear created this year. We have way more where that came from!

Check out archived posts, look out for new ones, and download the MamaBear Family Safety App (available for both iPhones and Androids) so we can help make protecting and parenting your family easier in 2015.

December 30, 2014December 31, 2014

Cracking The Code on Internet Slang: 20 Acronyms Every Parent Needs to Know

With texting, email, social media and smartphones, teens have endless options for communicating. As parents, it is our responsibility to monitor for safety. But it’s not always easy to stay in the loop when we can’t decipher what our kids are saying with slang and acronyms.

Teens frequently use internet slang and acronyms in their digital conversations. While mostly the language is harmless and easy to decode (such as LOL aka laugh out loud), other times the language is used as an intentional way to hide information from parents and adults.

CNN reports that a majority of teens believe that their parents are watching or monitoring their social media lives. Knowing that their parents may be watching, kids have started using acronyms and slang to hide the meaning of their messages.

Not surprisingly, the messages that kids are trying to hide are messages that would be troubling for parents to read. Many of the acronyms refer to drinking and drugs, and the code language is frequently used to hide messages related to sexting.

Many parents think sexting sounds like something their child wouldn’t do. But studies have found that sexting is much more common than many parents want to admit. Studies from The Pew Internet & American Life Project and the Cox Communications Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey conclude that 39% of teens have sent sexually suggestive messages via text, email or instant messaging.

Parents may believe that their kids aren’t sexting, but it could be that parents just don’t know how to read the language they use to discuss it. In order to crack the code on teenage digital slang, parents need to be familiar with the following acronyms.

Acronyms You Need to Know

IWSN – I want sex now
GNOC – Get naked on camera
NIFOC – Naked in front of computer
CU46 – See you for sex
53X – Sex
1174 – Party meeting place
CID – Acid (the drug)
Broken – Hungover from alcohol
420 – Marijuana
SUGARPIC – Suggestive or erotic photo
KOTL – Kiss on the lips
(L)MIRL – Let’s meet in real life
PRON – Porn
TDTM – Talk dirty to me
8 – Oral sex
IPN – I’m posting naked
LH6 – Let’s have sex
WTTP – Want to trade pictures?
DOC – Drug of choice
GYPO – Get your pants off

Related: Parents Can’t Afford to Ignore Their Kids’ Social Media

Knowing the acronyms is only half the battle when trying to protect your kids. Parents need to connect with their children in their digital worlds by monitoring their social media profiles.

The MamaBear Family Safety App makes it easy for parents to stay in the know. The app allows parents to sync with their kids’ accounts, receive updates when their child makes a new social connection, upload photos and monitor messages with a restricted words list. Add these acronyms to your word list to monitor in MamaBear and take an extra precaution to protect your children. The MamaBear Family Safety App is free and available for both iPhones and Androids.