Posts tagged ‘father’
What Are the Rules?
I’m old enough to remember that rules were made for a reason and people followed them.
Sometimes we broke the rules by disobeying our parents, but not often because there were consequences.
We didn’t do things like throw paper or bags of food on the ground. We didn’t see our parents do it and there were fines if you got caught littering. Plus our parents or someone else gave us a hard time if we disobeyed “the rules”.
I think about how annoying some rules are and what their purpose is.
I love my freedom. So following the rules isn’t always easy for me. But I understand how important they are if I want to live harmoniously with people in my community and in my family.
Freedoms across the world are important too! So I stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters, when we celebrate events like May Day, Cinco de Mayo and Juneteenth. I watch events in my community and around the world as rebellions reflect how unhappy people are with rules! Yet, without basic rules of conduct, civility and how we live, there is only chaos, not freedom.
I think about the importance of moms in our life. Mothers teach us and help us follow rules and they create customs that follow us for the rest of our lives.
It’s important for parents to share their values with their children, so they understand how they fit into the world and how to live harmoniously with others. The world is a better place when we respect each other and follow basic rules. Our kids are watching us.
By the way, it bugs me when people drive through the red light, don’t stop at stop signs, or beep at pedestrians because they are taking too long to cross the street. 😡
Let’s remember to live harmoniously and that we are all related as humans.
Smile at someone today.
Be courteous.
Let someone merge in front of you when you’re driving. Be a positive role model to your child. That’s my prayer for the month of May.
C. Lynn Williams, #MsParentguru
Author & parent coach
OtoZen App Review: The Ultimate Driver Safety Companion
Image by Lopolo on Shutterstock
When it comes to driving, it’s always best to be careful and drive defensively. I want my friends and family to feel safe when I’m behind the wheel, and I want them to stay safe when they’re driving, too.
But how can I be sure that my loved ones are driving safely? Especially with teens, as they are more sensitive about sharing their activities and whereabouts with parents.
One of the most effective ways to ensure your loved ones are safe on the road is to use a driver safety app. These apps can help you maintain situational awareness and control at all times. This is why my family and I use one.
After trying a few others, OtoZen is my app of choice because of how easy it is to coordinate with multiple drivers on one platform. It helps me and my family stay safe on the road with its warning systems, real-time GPS, and Live Location features.
Why Is OtoZen the App of Choice for Driver Safety?
OtoZen has several features that encourage and help drivers stay safe on the roads. It offers everything from speeding and car use alerts to driving and family safety features that can help new and teenage drivers in your family.
1. Speeding Alerts
OtoZen monitors the vehicle’s speed, alerting drivers when they exceed the speed limit in a particular area. This can help new and experienced drivers know the limit for each road, avoid costly speeding tickets, and stay aware of how fast they are driving.
2. Live Location Sharing
This feature allows drivers to share their location with family and friends. OtoZen also gives drivers the option to send their expected time of arrival (ETA), so their family and friends will know when to expect them. This can also ease parents’ minds, knowing when their teens arrive at their destination.
Live Location sharing lets users control who can see their movements on the road, providing privacy, safety, and security through one app.
3. Safe Driving Score
One of the best ways to become a better driver is through feedback. OtoZen provides Drive Scores for each trip that identify unsafe driving behavior like speeding and phone usage.
Monitoring phone usage brings attention to distracted driving, helping drivers stay focused and avoid distractions while operating a vehicle. The Drive Scores are an excellent way to improve driving habits and observe safe driving guidelines while traveling. This feature can also help teens build accountability.
4. Helps Your Family Members Pass Driving Tests
OtoZen is an excellent tool that can prepare teens for their driving tests. The app can log and share driving records with driving instructors at the local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Driver training schools can also use OtoZen to assess their students’ performance. They can quickly review which areas need improvement through the automatically generated driving log.
5. Accident Detection and Roadside Assistance
The app detects accidents and sends a 911 dispatch automatically. Whether minor or severe, OtoZen has 24/7 support services from certified dispatchers who notify emergency responders immediately in the event of a crash.
The dispatchers use the app’s Live Location feature to inform authorities of the vehicle’s exact location so they can send the nearest responders to the area.
6. Hands-free Driver Safety
The app lets drivers receive and send messages through their vehicle’s speakers, minimizing distractions. The hands-free feature also sends audio reminders for nearby errands and appointments and automatically notifies friends and family of trip progress and arrival times.
Is the App Worth It?
OtoZen can fulfill many needs and concerns regarding driver safety.
Stay Connected
If you have a teen learning to drive or simply want to stay connected with friends and family, OtoZen is a great choice. You can monitor loved ones’ locations and know when they need your help. While your teen is old enough to do many things, that does not take away from ensuring their safety.
Improve Driving
Student drivers can use the Driver Scores feature to see how well they are doing. You can work with your teens and help them improve their skills, especially with an automatically generated report they can show to driving schools and the DMV.
Save Lives
The accident and roadside assistance features can save lives. Anyone is susceptible to accidents, especially teens who are learning to drive. You can quickly gain peace of mind with this app, as it automatically notifies you and emergency responders when an accident occurs and provides an exact location.
Helpful Modes
It also uses different modes to observe a driver’s movements: driver and viewer.
Viewer mode allows you to observe the vehicle’s movements, including the ETA, stops, and Driver Scores. Plus, you can view other vehicles that have shared their location with you and see their movement on the app under Live Location.
In Driver mode, you can enable Live Location, input the location of your home, and set up hands-free notifications and reminders when you are on the road. You can also set up speeding alerts to get notified when you pass the speed limit, which is especially helpful when you are unfamiliar with a location’s speed limits.
OtoZen: Best for Families
Using an app like OtoZen can help parents like me track the movement of loved ones. It allows me to monitor their whereabouts without being too intrusive and controlling.
You can give your teens the freedom they want while teaching responsibility with an app that automatically informs you where they are and their current situation. Parents don’t have to needlessly worry when their teens aren’t home yet. OtoZen tells me where they are, provides their ETA, and even shows me their speed.
Make Driver Safety Part of Your Family With OtoZen
Driver safety is a lesson every family needs to learn. Downloading OtoZen as a driver safety and assistance app can go a long way in protecting your teens on the road.
If you want to monitor your teens and ensure they’re driving safely, OtoZen is an excellent choice.
Teaching Kids About Money
Guest article by Yulissa Asprilla, yasprilla@annuity.org
Teaching your kids about money is an important part of parenting. It is important to start early and give them a basic understanding of money and how it works. You can also help them to understand the importance of investing and the risks associated with it. Finally, you can help them to understand the importance of giving back to the community and how to make charitable donations, It can help them to become financially responsible adults.
Some parents may not feel confident enough in their own financial knowledge to be able to teach their kids about money. Others may think it is inappropriate to discuss money with young children, or mistakenly believe that children are too young to comprehend financial concepts. However, it is important to remember that teaching your children about money is essential to their development, and it is never too early to start.
When to start?
Depending on the age of your child, the conversation may vary. For younger children, you can start by introducing basic concepts such as the value of money, how to save, and how to make wise spending decisions. As your child gets older, you can introduce more complex topics such as budgeting, investing, and credit. It is important to have open and honest conversations with your child about money and to ensure that they understand the value of money and how to manage it responsibly.
How do I convince my kid that college is worth it?
When it comes to convincing your kid that college is worth it, it is important to emphasize the numerous benefits that come with a college education. Explain to your child that college provides them with the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and skills that will help them succeed in their future career. Additionally, point out the potential for increased earning potential and job security that a college degree can provide. Finally, explain that college is a great way to make long-lasting connections and friendships that can last a lifetime.
Making a Budget
The first step is to help them create a budget that is realistic and achievable. This should include setting a goal for how much money they want to save each month and listing all of their monthly expenses. Once they have a budget in place, they should be encouraged to stick to it. This means avoiding impulse purchases and shopping around for the best deals. They should also be reminded to save any extra money they have left over at the end of the month. Finally, it is important to provide ongoing support and encouragement to help them stay on track. With these steps, they should be able to stick to their budget and reach their financial goals.
Lessons & Activities
We need to teach them that making mistakes in the comfort of their home, could greatly impact their future decisions by giving a sense of importance coming from the use of money. Researchers from the University of Minnesota suggest focusing “children’s education about money on the concepts of earning, spending, saving, borrowing, and sharing.” The University of Arizona doctoral student Ashley LeBaron said in her studies that “Practice Makes Perfect: Experimental learning as a Method of Financial Socialization.”
Software Applications for Teaching Kids About Money
Miata Edoga, president of the financial education company Abundance Bound, told Parentology, “We don’t want our kids to be afraid of spending, or be afraid of managing credit. We want them to feel confident in their ability to negotiate successful financial lives, to come at money from a place of power, rather than fear.”
The information age ushered in new media teaching platforms and introduced the world to the “digital native.” New educational apps for kids are launched regularly. These technological tools use interactivity and gamification to make financial concepts fun for children and teens, Additionally, by Educating kids about core personal finance topics, these apps simulate the digital-era experience of using credit and debit cards, mobile payment methods, and online banking.
Wish your family just said “Thank You Mom” once in a while? Attend my upcoming webinar where I talk about it.
Click Here to become a part of my parenting community.
C. Lynn Williams, #MsParentguru
Parent Coach, Author & Speaker
Tell Yourself You Are Enough
Telling yourself you are enough is a good start to something better.
Teaching Responsibility versus Perfection
This month I’ve focused on commitment and responsibility within our families, with ourselves as parents, and with our children.
I would not be MsParentguru, if I didn’t mention that many of us grew up with parents who taught us that success meant you did things exactly as you were told – perfectly.
That’s how I was raised.
Thinking back to my childhood, my siblings and I had chores. To deviate from my parent’s expectations was not good! There were consequences. 😩 For example, during the week, I was expected to heat up dinner, by the time my parents got home from work. My sister or brother would set the table.
Being the strong-willed child who stretched the limits of what my mom wanted me to do, I would not focus so much on having dinner ready, I would do something that I thought would make mom happy and proud of me.
Why? 🤷🏽♀️ Kids need the why…
Of course she reprimanded me because I did not do what she expected me to do, but what I felt as a child, was that I couldn’t please my mother.
How many times have you felt like that growing up? If you did exactly what your parents asked you to do they still weren’t pleased with the results? So we have children that suffer with self-esteem issues and I wonder if parents are requiring perfection as a need for control instead of teaching children the bigger picture?
The bigger picture is that there are many ways to complete tasks at home, at school or at work. When we get stuck with how something should be done, it causes issues in our relationship with our kids.
So how do we repair those relationships?
One way is to be really clear about what it is that we want our children to do when we assign tasks or chores – simply saying “clean up your room” could mean that there are no dirty clothes or plates of food underneath the bed or stuffed in the closet.
It might mean that your bed is made and whatever else you want them to do in their room. Once you have explained the task, have your child say back to you what it is that they heard you say so that both of you understand. I certainly remember saying “that’s not what I asked you to do”, and hearing – “Mom that’s what you said.”
Will this strategy work the first couple of times maybe so, maybe not. However, as you work on communicating in a way that they understand and cover it with a lot of love and grace, conversations, and the expectations will get better and better. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what it meant to be a perfect, parent and issues that you may have faced trying to control your child’s responses.
What was missing between my mom and I, was the explanation for why what I did was not good enough. These types of conversations help parents teach responsibility and life lessons to their children without squelching their self-esteem.
If your motherhood journey feels more like a chore, than an honored responsibility…Register here for my FREE 3-Day challenge: Make Family Living Easier.
C. Lynn Williams, Ms. Parentguru
How Do You Teach Kindness to Your Kid?
What kindness do you see in the world today? It starts within families…
Continue Reading November 16, 2022 at 10:45 pm Leave a comment
Want to Learn a New Lesson Everyday… Become a Parent
Every summer we keep our grandson, Aidan for a week. It helps out because his daycare is closed the week before school begins in the fall, and it gives his parents a rest. 😴
I love spending time with him. It gives my husband and I a chance to spend time with him, teach him some of our values and customs, and to learn more about him and his generation through his experiences.
I continue to learn patience from Aidan, which is funny because after raising four children, I feel like I already know quite a bit about parenting. 😉
Here’s what I learned this week from Aidan:
⁃ Sitting next to him is not necessarily spending time with him, especially if I’m engrossed with one of my devices.
⁃ Expecting him to do the right thing doesn’t work unless I explain it clearly and give him a good example to follow.
⁃ Having fun and learning new things is what’s important to him as a three-year-old and I’m OK with that.
Being a great parent or grandparent really works if you are willing to:
1. Spend the time
2. Make the time
3. Be present and love them unconditionally
Have a blast & enjoy every minute.💥
Interested in managing your family’s dynamics? Contact me – Ms. Parent Guru to receive information about my parent coaching programs that help guide you through Aging Parents, Mother and Daughter drama, Mothers and their Sons challenges, Fathers and Daughters as well as Fathers and their Sons.
Click Here to become a part of my parenting community.
C. Lynn Williams, #MsParentguru
Understanding and Addressing the Symptoms of Parenting Fatigue
The article is for parents of special needs children who wish to assess their level of fatigue and create a self-care “treatment plan” (though this should definitely not replace a doctor’s treatment plan!).
4 Reasons to Write a Will
Here are 4 reasons why having a will is important to your family.
How to Have Healthier Menfolk
As I sit here and eat a bag of Hershey’s kisses, I wonder how in the world my kids learned to stop loving junk food 😝 and stay healthy? 🤔
Wonder how you build kids who love junk food, into healthy adults? 🍪🍟
This month of June, celebrates men and boy’s health. So let’s talk about physical health.
When it comes to male health, I literally have to call “the kids” when my husband needs to go to the doctor. He’s pretty clear that there is no need to go to the doctor.. just take an Advil or Dayquil and stay in the bed. 🤷🏽♀️
So you can imagine, there’s no such thing as scheduling an annual well visit.
Do you live with someone like that? 🤦🏽♀️
Scheduling annual well doctor and dentist visits are easy to do when our sons are young. They need both for school or to play sports. As they grow into men, it becomes more challenging to have them see a doctor as a preventative measure. My husband would rather write a check for a million dollars 💵 than have a wellness visit. 🤷🏽♀️
It’s a shame that body parts have to stop working, in order to visit the doctor. Maybe it’s the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” strategy.
If the males in your family are the same way, it might be easier to help them eat healthier. Personally, I like vegetables and a fish protein since I don’t eat meat. I get a little push back if I make what my husband calls, double greens. 🥬 For example, cooking stir fry veggies and a side of spinach is considered double greens. On those days, I’m pressing my luck.
With your sons, especially if they play a sport, having a good amount of healthy carbs makes eating junk food less enticing. Maybe they’re not interested in eating grapes, apples and cherries, but have them in the fridge. Having popcorn, cheese bites, and healthy snacks in the pantry, may make flaming hots, or hot Cheetos less attractive.
I recommend starting a healthy regime now at the beginning of the summer before more bad eating habits get started.
Consider adding in a mother-son (or husband-wife) evening walk to give you time with each other, and a little exercise.
Or… encourage your husband and son to go to the park and throw a baseball, football, play soccer, or run on the track together. You might get push back if they’ve not done this before. Just keep encouraging them.
I’ve been trying to get my husband to walk with me in the evening, so that we don’t become a fixed part of the sofa. 😂 I’ll keep trying.
At the end of the day, exercising and healthy eating, can help you control your weight and keep your sanity.
Write me and let me know how successful you are with the males in your family. I’ll do the same. 👀
Interested in learning more about your family’s dynamics? Contact me – Ms. Parent Guru to receive information about my parent coaching programs that help guide you through Aging Parents, Mother and Daughter drama, Mothers and their Sons challenges, Fathers and Daughters as well as Fathers and their Sons.
Click Here to become a part of my parenting community.
Staying Sane While Raising Your Teens 
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