Our kids and teens may always be an app ahead of us, but make no doubt about it, they will always need our parenting wisdom.
As technology has taken over our lives (almost literally), we have witnessed a rise in online hate, a dip in empathy and compassion and most of all — parents struggling to keep up.
Let’s review three of the best parenting books that have been helping navigate these digital times, both online and off.
Socializing in real-life helps kids and teens develop empathy.
UnSelfie: Why Emphatic Kids Succeed In Our All-About-Me World by Dr. Michele Borba
Teens today are forty percent less empathetic than they were thirty years ago. Why is a lack of empathy—which goes hand-in-hand with the self-absorption epidemic Dr. Michele Borba calls the Selfie Syndrome—so dangerous? First, it hurts kids’ academic performance and leads to bullying behaviors. Also, it correlates with more cheating and less resilience. And once children grow up, a lack of empathy hampers their ability to collaborate, innovate, and problem-solve—all must-have skills for the global economy.
In UnSelfie Dr. Borba pinpoints the forces causing the empathy crisis and shares a revolutionary, researched-based, nine-step plan for reversing it.
The good news? Empathy is a trait that can be taught and nurtured. Dr. Borba offers a framework for parenting that yields the results we all want: successful, happy kids who also are kind, moral, courageous, and resilient. UnSelfie is a blueprint for parents and educators who want to kids shift their focus from I, me, and mine…to we, us, and ours.
- Follow Michele on Twitter and Instagram
What goes online, stays online.
Public and Permanent: Creating a Mindset Through Our Digital Actions Are Public and Permanent® by Richard Guerry
Public and Permanent is a life changing philosophical guide providing the knowledge that all users of digital technology must know as citizens of a rapidly evolving digital village.
This information will help to protect you and your family from making life and legacy altering mistakes online or with any digital technology.
Students, parents and teachers across the globe are using this book to learn and reinforce a powerful and effective method for reducing:
-Cyberbullying
-Sexting
-Sextortion
Sextcasting
-Poor Social Media behavior
And many other cyber issues many are not yet aware of!
If your school or community hasn’t booked one of Richard’s workshops (Institute for Responsible Online & Cell Phone Communication), they are super-engaging and educational. Sign-up today. You won’t be disappointed! Building and developing consiousness™.
Raising the device generation starts with a sturdy foundation.
Raising Digital Humans In A Digital World by Diana Graber
Sexting, cyberbullying, revenge porn, online predators… all of these potential threats can tempt parents to snatch the smartphone or tablet right out of their children’s hands. While avoidance might eliminate the dangers, that approach also means your child misses out on technology’s many benefits and opportunities.
Raising Humans in a Digital World shows how digital kids must learn to navigate this environment, through
- developing social-emotional skills
- balancing virtual and real life
- building safe and healthy relationships
- avoiding cyberbullies and online predators
- protecting personal information
- identifying and avoiding fake news and questionable content
- becoming positive role models and leaders.
This book is packed with at-home discussion topics and enjoyable activities that any busy family can slip into their daily routine. Full of practical tips grounded in academic research and hands-on experience, today’s parents finally have what they’ve been waiting for—a guide to raising digital kids who will become the positive and successful leaders our world desperately needs.
Pick these books up online and be sure to share with them your family and friends. Being an educated parent helps us all to have safer communities.
Find these authors online and follow them! You will be forever learning as technology and kids continue to grow in ways we may never understand but will definitely be able to parent.
