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parenting tips

Steve Jobs, Top Tech CEOs said they limit their kids’ screen time

The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs told New York Times reporter Nick Bilton that he and his wife limited their children’s access to technology. The reporter wrote in a September 2014 piece how shocked he was and was certain the house was littered with devices.
But after that interview, Bilton said he discovered that man of the top founders of major tech companies also limited their children’s screen time. He wrote:
Since [the Jobs call], I’ve met a number of technology chief executives and venture capitalists who say similar things: they strictly limit their children’s screen time, often banning all gadgets on school nights, and allocating ascetic time limits on weekends.
I was perplexed by this parenting style. After all, most parents seem to take the opposite approach, letting their children bathe in the glow of tablets, smartphones and computers, day and night.

Yet these tech C.E.O.’s seem to know something that the rest of us don’t.

Chris Anderson, the former editor of Wired and now chief executive of 3D Robotics, a drone maker, has instituted time limits and parental controls on every device in his home. “My kids accuse me and my wife of being fascists and overly concerned about tech, and they say that none of their friends have the same rules,” he said of his five children, 6 to 17. “That’s because we have seen the dangers of technology firsthand. I’ve seen it in myself, I don’t want to see that happen to my kids.”

The dangers he is referring to include exposure to harmful content like pornography, bullying from other kids, and perhaps worse of all, becoming addicted to their devices, just like their parents.

Alex Constantinople, the chief executive of the OutCast Agency, a tech-focused communications and marketing firm, said her youngest son, who is 5, is never allowed to use gadgets during the week, and her older children, 10 to 13, are allowed only 30 minutes a day on school nights.

Evan Williams, a founder of Blogger, Twitter and Medium, and his wife, Sara Williams, said that in lieu of iPads, their two young boys have hundreds of books (yes, physical ones) that they can pick up and read anytime.
So how do tech moms and dads determine the proper boundary for their children? In general, it is set by age.

Children under 10 seem to be most susceptible to becoming addicted, so these parents draw the line at not allowing any gadgets during the week. On weekends, there are limits of 30 minutes to two hours on iPad and smartphone use. And 10- to 14-year-olds are allowed to use computers on school nights, but only for homework.

Read the entire piece HERE!

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World Water Day: 20+ Facts to Know (INFOGRAPHIC)

Today is World Water Day. It’s a day to raise awareness about the importance of clean drinking water, especially for women and children worldwide. Here are some surprising and unfortunate facts from Water.org:
Surveys from 45 developing countries show that women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households. This is time not spent working at an income-generating job, caring for family members, or attending school.
Diarrhea is the 4th leading cause of child death, a majority of which are water-related.
Diarrhea kills children at a rate equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every ten hours.
An estimated 622,000 children under the age of five die each year from diarrheal diseases globally.
Reductions in time to collect water has been found to increase school attendance. A study in Ghana found that a 15 minute reduction in water collection time increases the proportion of girls attending school by 8% to 12%. Another study found a one hour reduction in water collection time increases school attendance by approximately 8% in Yemen, 18% in Pakistan, and 11% in Morocco.
Here are 20 more facts to consider from Able Skills.



View Interactive Version (via Able Skills ).

                


Planet Box offers a solution for what you can do to avoid wasting precious water that is so needed in developing nations worldwide: invest in a reusable water bottle. 
  • Save Money & Water: Americans buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week. It offers you to get rid of half full plastic bottles filling up in your house and fill PlanetBox’s BottleRocket with tap water that flows virtually free.
  • Garbage Be Gone: While single-use plastic bottles might be convenient,  they add up to a lot of garbage, which end up in our oceans and landfills and contribute to more global warming. Packing a waste free BottleRocket lightens your carbon footprint on the planet.
  • Stray away from dangerous BPAs:The BPA compound found in plastic water bottles is so harmful, several states are banning it. PlanetBox is made of food-grade stainless steal, making it BPA (and other harmful chemicals found in plastic) free!
Good idea and great concept!

10 celebrities whose parenting skills have been questioned

In today’s celebrity-obsessed world, it’s easier than ever to spot your favorite public figures in some of their less-than-shining moments. This is especially true for the intensely personal areas in their lives, like major mistakes when it comes to their parenting choices. For every story about celebrity supermoms like Gwyneth Paltrow or Angelina Jolie, there seems to be two more about famous parents that aren’t quite cutting it. While there are a variety of stories about celebs that just can’t seem to avoid missteps as they raise their children, these 10 have committed parenting sins that have seemed to follow them ever since.

  1.     Dina and Michael Lohan – When their daughter Lindsey first appeared on the scene, she was a fresh-faced child with talent to spare and enough charm to set her apart from a field of other young actresses. As she began to get older, however, her substance abuse problems and run-ins with the law were more famous than her films, and it became apparent that many of them stemmed from her turbulent upbringing. In the world of bad celebrity parents, the Lohan parents have created so many maelstroms that it’s difficult to choose just one of their many parenting faux pas over the years.
  2.     Alec Baldwin – When tape of Alec Baldwin berating his daughter for missing a scheduled phone call surfaced, the deep enmity and bitterness of Baldwin’s divorce from Kim Basinger and his explosive temper sent shockwaves through the Hollywood gossip community.
  3.     Britney Spears – Two of the primary parenting flubs committed by this pop songstress could conceivably be attributed to the incessant hounding of paparazzi, but are still infamous nonetheless. Fleeing photographers with her son on her lap as she drove away or almost dropping him as she fought through the crush of reporters surrounding her before a highly-publicized breakdown that culminated in a loss of custody of her two children made headlines around the world, cementing Britney’s place among parents that have made questionable choices in the public eye.
  4.     Courtney Love – Openly admitting to using heroin during her pregnancy with daughter Frances Bean and later losing custody of her due to her regular struggles with maintaining sobriety, Courtney Love isn’t likely to top anyone’s Best Hollywood Parents list.
  5.     Michael Jackson – Despite well-known allegations of suffering at the hands of his own tyrannical father, Michael Jackson was, by most accounts, a devoted dad to his children. Still, his excitable nature got the best of him during a trip to Germany, where he dangled his then-infant son Blanket over a balcony in order to give admirers a closer look, despite having the child’s face covered.
  6.     Woody Allen – In the annals of Hollywood history, few stories have inspired the level of shock and vague disgust that accompanied the discovery of Woody Allen’s long-running affair with his adopted daughter. Now married parents of two adopted children of their own, Allen and Mia Farrow’s daughter Soon-Yi are still going strong, despite the fact that she entered his life as a daughter.
  7.     Eminem – While his devotion to daughter Hailey is well-known, Eminem’s decision to repeatedly release songs about murdering her mother Kim have painted him in a questionable light in terms of parenting.
  8.     Kate Moss – Struggling with substance abuse and addiction are enough to cause even the most dedicated parents to make terrible mistakes, but Kate Moss’s insistence on exposing her daughter to infamous British bad boy Pete Doherty and the fact that she missed Lila Grace’s third birthday due to a stint in rehab are parenting mistakes that she’ll likely never live down.
  9.     Peaches Geldof – Famous largely for being the daughter of a celebrity herself, Bob Geldof’s daughter Peaches should be familiar with the concept of growing up and parenting in the public eye. That knowledge didn’t stop her from continuing a conversation on her cell phone as her infant son Astala toppled out of his stroller onto the sidewalk. Peaches took to Twitter to blame the incident on the state of London’s sidewalks, insisting that he was strapped in to his stroller and wasn’t hurt. Pictures snapped by photographers tell a different story, however, as little Astala can be clearly seen falling out of his stroller head-first.
  10.     Kris Jenner – The matron of the Kardashian/Jenner empire has drawn comparisons to Joe Jackson due to her overbearing insistence on pushing her kids into the spotlight for more money and fame. The moment that lands her the dubious honor of a spot on this list, however, was pressuring her daughter Kim to pose nude for Playboy while cameras of the family reality show were rolling, despite Kim’s reluctance to strip down for the notorious magazine.

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Earth Day: 30 Blog Posts to help you REDUCE your family’s Carbon Footprint

This winter, my husband went away to visit family and attend events at his native Trinidad and Tobago. While he was away, I woefully neglected to take out our recycle bin and forgot to ask our sons to do so as well. That meant, for two weeks, our pizza boxes, egg whites, milk cartons and such piled up and overflowed in the backyard. When I went over to tsk tsk shamefully and peer at it, that’s when I was struck at how large our carbon footprint is. The pile was so high. 
Lucky for me, I recalled GoNannies had submitted a guest blog post a little while back where it curated 30 blog posts that helped families like mine do a better job of using earth resources. This post is perfectly timed to share today for Earth Day and Earth Month is coming up this April:
As information about climate change and the damage it could cause continues to be discovered, more and more families are realizing the importance of managing and minimizing their carbon footprint. Making a difference in the health of the planet by making a conscious effort to reduce the ecological impact that your household has is the socially responsible, ethical thing to do. These 30 blogs all feature posts underlining the importance of that task, and offer tips, hints and tricks for turning your family a bit greener.
My family’s carbon footprint
Energy-Efficient Home Improvements
Not only will energy-efficient upgrades to your home help the planet, they’ll also save your wallet each month by translating into noticeable reductions in energy costs. These five blog entries detail some of the upgrades you can make to turn your home into one that has less of an ecological impact, and will also cost less to maintain.
Sustainable Dietary Habits
Making changes to your dietary habits is an effective way of reducing your carbon footprint while also enjoying healthier, more wholesome foods. These five blog posts detail not only the importance of sustainable eating, but also include tips for how to make the switch with your family.
Recycling and Repurposing
The environment created inside a landfill is one that’s typically anaerobic due to how tightly garbage is compacted. The lack of oxygen in this environment means that even biodegradable refuse may not break down properly, which is one of the reasons why recycling is so important. Repurposing items that you might ordinarily discard can also help you save money, and will keep them out of your local landfill.
Transportation
Changing the way that your family commutes to work, school and activities is a small but significant step in the direction of ecological responsibility. Carpooling, participating in ride share programs, and utilizing mass transit are all viable alternatives to driving a car with one or two occupants, and these changes do make a difference. These five bloggers discuss their experiences and share their knowledge about earth-friendly transportation.
  • Green Transportation Alternatives
  • Cars & Transportation
  • Ridesharing: Not Just Your Family Carpool Anymore
  • 10 Green Family Travel Tips
Reducing Waste
While keeping garbage out of landfills and managing your family’s carbon footprint is of vital importance, learning to manage and reduce your waste as a group is a great way to instill the importance of green living in children, teaching them responsible practices that they’ll remember in adulthood.
Teaching Kids Earth-Friendly Habits
It’s important for families to reduce their carbon footprints as a household, but it’s also important that kids learn the necessity of living an environmentally-responsible life as they grow up. Good habits start when children are still quite small, and these five bloggers tackle the issue of imparting green values to little ones.

Stay GREEN everyone!

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VA mom has 3 boys 3 years in a row on same day w/out being induced (VIDEO)

A Virginia mom just gave birth on March 13, 2015 to her third son in a row, each born on March 13 of the previous year.
After having three girls, Shalonda Dominique and her husband wanted to try for a boy and they couldn’t believe their luck to be successful and have each kid share the same birthday. 
Her 2-year old son Tre, born March 13, 2013, has spent each of his birthdays welcoming baby brothers into the world. His 1-year old brother Santana was born on March 13, 2014 and his newest baby brother, Harlem, arrived last Friday the 13th in March. Not a bad date after all even though Dominique tells the news station that she had a tough labor.
All babies came “naturally” without being induced and were each born vaginally. 
Maybe it’s a case of the power of suggestion.
“The whole pregnancy, I kept saying, ‘Watch this baby come out on the 13th. Watch him have the same birthday,” she told FOX 5 DC.
She and the entire fam were shocked to learn it did happen again. They beat the odds.
“After my three girls, I said, ‘I have to have a boy, and then I got three of them with the same birthday!” 
Her daughters, Trinity, Monet and London, are happy to have their own special birthdays but also agree six is enough.
Dominique says the family plan to celebrate birthdays next year.
“No more kids,” she says. 
Ha! We hear that!

DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG

photo: Fox/Dominique

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Thousands of adult adopted Ohioans got access to their birth certificates for first time today

The first four adoptees to get their original birth certificates today in Ohio.
Today, thousands of native Ohioans who were adopted as kids can get a copy of their original birth certificate for the first time.
The state’s Department of Health adopted a new law allowing persons adopted in Ohio between 1964 and 1996 to obtain their birth records from the state. Until now, persons adopted in Ohio between those years needed a court order to receive a copy of their birth certificate, thanks to a 1963 law that tried to stop the public from seeing adoption records too easily. 
When the doors opened at the vital statistics offices today, about 250 people crowded in to request their original birth records, a department spokeswoman confirmed. 
In 2013, the Ohio legislators voted to make the records available on request.
At a news conference in Columbus, state Senator Dave Burke who is an adoptee himself and sponsored the bill  said it was an “uphill battle” to change state law but a worthwhile one.
“Unless you’re an adoptee, you don’t have a whole understanding of how important this is to you,” Burke said.
The state has had a patchwork of inconsistent laws for years and today over 400,000 are free to uncover more about their past and history.
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30 blogs on parenting boys!

Because I have two boys, I am sharing this guest blog post from fulltimenanny:

Some people might tell you that parenting is parenting and there is no difference between parenting a boy and parenting a girl, but that one size fits all approach just doesn’t work for everyone. Raising a boy can be a whole new ballgame from raising a girl, and sometimes you may find yourself in need of a little extra help. These 30 bloggers have created posts that will help you determine what you need to do during different stages of raising a boy and how the roles that mom and dad play are different.

Mom’s Role
Mom can kiss his boo boos and calm his fears, and more often than not she is his safe place should he need one. The role that Mom plays in her sons life is drastically different than that of Dad, and thus requires her to fulfill different needs. At what point do boys really need a male role model?  These points and others are covered in these five blog entries.
Dad’s Role
Do you have to have a Dad in the picture to raise a great boy?  Not necessarily, but he does still need to have good male role models in his life.  Read through these five blog posts to see why a male role model is so important for your boy.
Toddler
When is raising a toddler boy different than raising a toddler girl?  Is it okay to let him play with dolls or get a play kitchen for his birthday?  Everything you should think about when raising toddler boys is covered in these five blog entries.
Tween
How do tween boys differ from teen boys?  Is there something you should be telling them or not telling them?  Look at these five blog posts to see what you might need to know about raising your tween boy.
Puberty
Puberty is a scary time for you and your son.  He will be freaked out by his own body if you do not warn him ahead of time what he should expect to happen.  Be pro-active and don’t wait for the school to tell him what’s going to happen to his body.  Take a gander at these five blog entries if you are a little unsure of what to say.
Teen
Everyone seems to pity you when you say you have a teenager, so there must be some reason why teenagers get such a bad rap.  If you are raising a teenage boy you need to check out these five blog articles.

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5 Ways a Positive Attitude Improves your Life

Guest Post

Hard times that sap your energy and leave you frustrated are an inevitable part of life.
Maybe you lost a job. Maybe your finances took a turn for the worse. Maybe your personal life is in disarray or a health problem emerged forcing a lifestyle change.
Such setbacks can leave people feeling afraid, uncertain, angry or unsatisfied, says Darlene Hunter, a renowned speaker and author of “Win-Ability, Navigating through Life’s Challenges with a Winning Attitude,” (www.darlenehunter.com).
Overcoming those emotions, she says, comes down to a person’s mindset and perspective.
“Your attitude is a critical factor that can either hold you back or help you move forward,” Hunter says. “Everyone needs to take the time to do a pulse check on where they are in their thinking. Is it positive or negative?”
A positive attitude comes easily when life is rosy. The real trick is persevering when things go awry so you can continue to strive toward your goals.
“The important thing to remember is that we cannot give up just because things do not work out the way we want,” Hunter says. “We must be persistent and press our way through to the end.”
Hunter offers five tips that can help change your thinking, which in turn will change your behavior and, ultimately, change your results.
1. Be a planner. To live your dream, you need to know what you want and have a plan for getting there. “Planning your day, week and month are critical ingredients to living your dream and purpose,” Hunter says. The “how” and “why” elements are important factors in planning, as they guide you in the direction you want to go.
2. Be goal oriented. Once you set goals, the next step is to work on completing them. That’s why it’s important to set goals you can accomplish. Each time you can check a goal off your list, you are one step closer to what you ultimately want to achieve. “The sense of accomplishment that comes from reaching even the smallest goals will help you keep moving and striving to get your desired end,” Hunter says.
3. Be driven for results. When you are driven, Hunter says, you have a compulsive and urgent desire to accomplish what you are seeking, whether it’s a bonus, a promotion, additional knowledge in a particular area or some other goal. The important factor is to always know what you are seeking. Results-driven people focus on meeting objectives and delivering on the goals they set.
4. Have a winning attitude. You must be determined, dedicated and devoted to succeed. “You should never give up on your goals and dreams simply because something goes wrong or you are not getting where you hoped to be fast enough,” Hunter says.
5. Be focused. When you are focused, you have a clear perception and understanding of what you want to accomplish and where you need to go to get there. “Think about long-distance runners who will run a 26-mile marathon,” Hunter says. “They find their pace and then they stay with it. They may get weary and tired, but they find their zone and stay focused and concentrate on what is needed to get to the end.”
“Plenty of stories can be told about people who failed in the beginning, but made it to the top of their profession because they did not give up after being told they weren’t good enough,” Hunter says.

“The ability to keep trying and pushing no matter how many failures or obstacles you hit is the power of perseverance and is what ‘Win-Ability’ is all about.”
About Darlene Hunter
Darlene Hunter, (www.darlenehunter.com), is president of Darlene Hunter & Associates, LLC, a motivational / inspirational speaker, author, life and business coach, and award-winning radio talk show host. Her new book, “Win-Ability, Navigating through Life’s Challenges with a Winning Attitude,” is her fourth on the theme of perseverance. She is the host of “The Darlene Hunter Show”, winner of the Fishbowl Radio Network 2013 Distance Show Of The Year Award. Hunter has been a top performer in management for more than 30 years.

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Get your post-baby body back with Michelle Obama’s #GimmeFive VIDEOS

If you just had a baby and are working on getting back in shape after giving birth, the First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama‘s latest campaign commemorating the 5th anniversary of her “Let’s Move” campaign is just in time.

She’s done the food challenge but this time the super cool First Lay challenges all to come up with 5 brand new work out moves, and for everyone to tag a fit friend to do the same.

Last week, the cool and down-to-earth mom-in-chief got down with Ellen Degeneres to Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson‘s “Uptown Funk” on Ellen’s show.

The campaign started months ago and our Bellyitch bumpwatch alum Beyonce helped kick it off by showing her multi-million followers 5 new moves.

We love Two Bad Bodies’ routines (see below) and will be testing them out ourselves because bikini, Spring Break and summer beach season is just around the corner.

Her efforts have worked to reduce obesity in toddlers and preschoolers and may do the same with other demos.

Let’s move!

A video posted by First Lady Michelle Obama (@michelleobama) on Feb 25, 2015 at 3:18pm PST

A video posted by Itala Murphy (@itala_murphy) on Mar 10, 2015 at 4:07am PDT

Designers Dolce and Gabanna call IVF & surrogate babies ‘synthetic children’

Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, creators of Dolce & Gabbana are getting flak over comments they made about same-sex parents and babies conceived via artificial insemination.
In an interview with Italian magazine  Panorama, the duo, who are also gay and were once a couple, said they didn’t think gay couples should have children. 
“You are born to a mother and a father. Or at least that’s how it should be,” Dolce told the magazine. “I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented wombs, semen chosen from a catalog.”
He continued, “you are born to a mother and a father. Or at least that’s how it should be.”

Bellyitch: DOMA: 13 Gay Celebrity Parents and their Children

 The top designer of high-priced high end clothing then went on, “I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented wombs, semen chosen from a catalog.”
Gabbana was also quoted as saying, “We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one.”
Many couples, including same-sex and male -female ones, opt for conceiving a baby via non-traditional methods like intrauterine insemination, in which fertilized embryos are created in a lab from eggs and sperm and then implanted into a woman or surrogacy which requires sperm to be transferred into a woman using a catheter.
It’s a popular option for those who want to have kids with their own DNA.
Dolce &  Gabbana have released statements in response to the backlash. Read it here
Famous heteros who underwent IVF treatment include Céline DionJaime King and Mariah Carey


E! Online reminds us that Miss World 2014 Rolene Strauss was conceived via IVF to a heterosexual couple, and is a “test tube” baby.
Elton John was the most outspoken celebrity to the remarks. He launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #BoycottDolceGabbana.
“How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic,'” John wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday. “And shame on you for wagging your judgmental little fingers at IVF – a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfill their dream of having children.”
The award-winning veteran performer remarked:
“Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions,” said the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana”
Other celebs including Sharon Stone and Ricky Martin, who is also gay and has a set of adopted twin children, spoke out in social media in support of John. 
John  married his partner David Furnish  in England in December 2014. The two are parents to 4-year old Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John and 1-year old Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John, both born to a surrogate mothers. 
Following Gabanna’s Instagram reply  saying, “This is the real respect for a different opinion????”.  They’ve gotten supporters too who are using the hashtag #BoycottJohn. 
They’ve since released a formal statement in reply (mentioned above) saying it was not their intent to judge the choices of others.
Your thoughts?

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