The Next Tech Thing: parenting strategies

Parenting in the Digital Age: Finding a Healthy Balance, Part 2

Last week we held the second part of our "Parenting in the Digital Age: Finding a Healthy Balance" parent webinar series. Once again I was joined by Mathew Meyers, a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist from Traverse Counseling. He specializes in family relationships and healthy technology use including video game addiction. Mathew and I have known each other for a few years as he has served on our District Digital Health & Wellness Committee. He has great insight into parenting, kids, and relationships. He and his wife have three children. I always enjoy discussing technology topics and parenting with Mathew.

So many parents are seeking help, answers and advice as to how to parent and manage our kids’ technology use. Keeping up can be challenging, but a positive and well informed approach can have a big impact on a child’s future and habits. We’ve had a great response to this series, and parents have been anxious to get tips and ideas. We had over 300 parents sign up for the first webinar, and almost 250 for the second. Plus, since it is recorded we put the links on our school website for anyone to view at their convenience afterwards.

We followed up the first parent webinar with a survey in which we asked parents what they wanted to learn more about. So based on their feedback, we addressed the topics that were requested during part two of our webinar. These included discussion of more parenting strategies and tips, digital footprints, cyberbullying, and pornography and sexting. You can view the full webinar here. Part 1 of this conversation about screen time and balance, addiction, attention and focus, monitoring and filtering, modeling and age recommendations can be viewed here.

As educators, it’s so important for us to encourage parents to maintain continual open dialog about technology and understand the significant role they play in helping youth be responsible and safe in today’s high-tech world. As Mathew stated near the beginning of this second webinar, all of us are historically blind--there is not template for parenting kids in the digital age. Helping the parents of the students in our schools focus and reflect on these important topics will help everyone in the long run, from the students in our individual classrooms to the community and society as a whole.