By David Geer
David Geer is a Tech Entrepreneur, a business development consultant, a motivational speaker, and a freelance writer.
While many of us were growing up, technology was treated very differently than it is today. It has always been a hot conversation topic, of course, but the concept of tech had not permeated our daily lives as heavily as it has today.
In the digital age, we have accepted major advanced in technology as part of our everyday activities. In a lot of cases, this has lead to completely different approaches in how we deal with certain things such as parenting.
Thankfully, there is a lot of tech that can help us become better parents and take care of our children and their growing needs.
Technology is a tool; all it matters is how you use it
Too many people still cling to the old adage of technology being detrimental to children and their developing minds. We often focus too much on the disadvantages that come with ubiquitous technology rather than focusing on the many benefits.
For instance, parents today should feel much safer with letting their kids out of the house as they can find them at pretty much any point, regardless of where they are or what they were doing.
A couple of decades ago, kids would simply go out and return “before the sun sets”. While this gave children of those days a unique sense of freedom and, in some cases, personal responsibility, the truth is that it wasn’t always safe.
Now, if our kids go out with their friends, we can simply call them and know exactly what’s happening with them. Of course, you still need to create a working relationship with your kids but that’s another story entirely.
Technology for parents is especially useful for young kids
When your kids grow older, you learn to respect their wishes, their privacy, and their own abilities to keep themselves safe. A 16-year-old, for example, does not necessarily need constant monitoring while they are out of the house.
However, kids these days have so many different activities. Both parents and kids are busy all the time, which means that parents are not often able to be with their kids as much as they might want.
In those scenarios, having technology that can help you track and monitor what your kid is doing can be incredibly helpful. Parental control apps and services are immensely useful and more parents should be taking advantage of them.
Keeping your kids safe and sound is a top priority
Say, for instance, that your kid gets off school everyday while you are still working. After school, they have to head over to an extracurricular activity that’s not near your home and they have to use public transport or walk from school by themselves.
That scenario sounds quite tense for parents as it gives them absolutely no control over the situation, despite the fact that the child is doing nothing wrong; in fact, they are simply participating in an activity.
In the case of young kids, a parent may wish to use an app like Apple’s Find My Friends to see exactly where their child is at all times. This may seem like an invasion of privacy but when it comes to young children, safety is a top priority.
The point is, technology simply provides solutions to very real issues that parents might be facing. Take the Greenlight card as an example. Instead of having to deal with a cash allowance, you can simply give your kids a debit card that you can control from your phone so dealing with a child’s allowance can be an easy and secure process every time. It gives parents the control over how much and where their kids are spending their money and it’s way safer than cash.
Technology can put your mind at ease
Having a kid in this day and age can be very frantic. Children these days have a lot more on their plates than they used to, and so do many parents who have to manage their own work-home balance.
Technology can give you peace of mind in many different situations and it’s all about taking advantage of that little fact.
If your kids are spending too much time on the Internet, for example, you can talk with them and then use a parental control app to monitor whatever they are doing and enforce your house rules.
When your kid is out of the house, you can use technology to keep them safe and sound at all times, from making sure that they don’t run out of money to ensuring that they travel safely between places as you check up on them.
The digital age may have brought with it some dangers but it has also brought many wonders. So if you are a worried parent, try to think of technology as a helpful assistant rather than something to be afraid of.
This article has been previously published on The Next Web.
Featured Image Credits: Jim Bauer on Visualhunt / CC BY-ND
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