Tag: texting

Time may have snuck up on you, but believe it or not, your teenager is now old enough to drive—and that may be terrifying. Think your teen is ready to get behind the wheel? As a parent, your job is to make them feel prepared and comfortable before venturing out on the open road.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, six teenagers, on average, die every day in car crashes. Of course, you don't want your child to become another statistic, so it's up to you to teach them a wealth of safe-driving habits. Here are a few tips to help get you started:

In the mad rush of jobs, school work, social obligations, and sports teams, quality time as a family seems harder to come by than ever before. If I want more time to just be "mom" and enjoy my kids, I need to put as much planning into it as I do every other area of our lives.

Here are some of my favorite ways to create space to simply enjoy each other and strengthen our bonds as a family unit—and summer is a great time to implement new routines and rituals without the pressure of school and strict schedules.

"Blah, blah, blah, Jordan, blah, blah…" It is easy to translate what teens hear when they tune their parents out. And it’s not just parents they ignore. Teens have been trained to tune out anyone who has more to say than the 140-character limit set by social media.

So how do we reach these kids to communicate the important details that really matter? In this three-part series, we will explore different methods of communication, and you will find that your teen prefers one over the other; it’s important to understand which is preferred for maximum effectiveness. In this first article, we will discover the best way to communicate with your teen through text messaging.

It’s official: e-mail, texting, and social media are no longer just helpful supplemental business tools. They’ve taken over the whole game. Yes, technology has made many aspects of modern living more convenient and connected, but the pendulum has swung too far. Now, people are reluctant to do something as simple as picking up the phone, preferring to shoot off an e-mail instead. And face-to-face meetings—well, they’re almost unheard of.

This technology takeover is not without consequence. Misunderstandings abound. Relationships stagnate.

Many Americans love fast food, and the reasons are simple: It’s quick, it’s cheap, and it’s easy—all of which appeal to the rushed, too-much-to-do-in-one-day American lifestyle. But because it’s so convenient, many of us tend to overdo it, which isn’t good for us.

Our communication habits are much the same way. We’re downright addicted to texting instead of calling, sending a terse e-mail in place of arranging a more leisurely face-to-face meeting, pasting in an emoticon instead of expressing a real emotion, and posting a social media message without considering who it might offend.

It never ceases to amaze me how life changing a simple moment can be—and, if you visit Monterey, you’ll know why.

Things like waking up to the smell of clean, ocean air. Knowing, when you wake up, the world's greatest tasting breakfast is on its way. The joy of knowing my teenage children are just a few feet away and all the miracles we discover in the coming hours will be shared by all of us.

What does it mean to spend "quality time " with your spouse? The answer may vary depending on who you ask. There is, however, one consistent comment that I routinely continue to hear, "Technology is killing the romance." Imagine curling up next to your spouse, wanting his or her full attention to talk about the day, vacation, weekend plans or life in general while he or she sits in front of the television and plays a lively game of Scrabble on the cell phone. Like the rest of society, couples are relying more on electronic messaging to convey their thoughts, but there should be some etiquette boundaries between you, your spouse and your technology.