PEP Blog

Parenting as a Gen Xer: We’re the first generation of parents in the age of iEverything

“I am very much standing in the middle between my parents and my children when it comes to technology, one foot dipped in the waters of Instagram and Twitter and the other still stuck in the luddite mud of ‘In my day, we passed paper notes in class, sent real letters to penpals, and talked to each other’s faces!’ When it comes to parenting, I find this middle place extremely uncomfortable, because I know what childhood and adolescence were like before the Internet, and my parenting models all came from that era.”

Three Safety Apps You Absolutely Must Have

“As much as our kids’ phone use can make us crazy, here is some info on 3 apps that could help keep them safe and provide a reason for them to keep their phones close at hand.” — Robbye Fox, PEP leader

Kids and Screen Time: Cutting Through the Static

“The take-home: Social skills require constant maintenance. The good news, according to this study, is that we can improve those skills in relatively short order, with practice. The bad news is that screen time often comes at the expense of that vital face-to-face time.”

Have Your Children Prepare Dinner

“Cooking ought to be, quite literally, child’s play. And every child ought to have access to the game. Just don’t tell them it’s healthy.”

6 Ways to Be a More Present Parent

“Why, then, are we so surprised that the teens in the world are attached to their smartphones? Addicted to their devices? Aren’t we, too, ‘just checking Facebook,’ ‘sending a quick text’ or ‘making a call’ when we are with our children? Aren’t we teaching them by example?”

Kids, oh how they emulate their parents!
(By Robert Doisneau) pic.twitter.com/prqvl4WPkq MT @HistoryInPics

Compiled by Trish Pannuto, PEP leader and president of PEP’s board of directors