Every time I gather with friends, our conversation inevitably turns to our kids and their use of social media.  I find there are three types of parent attitudes:

 I have no idea

A few parents have no idea about what apps their kids are on and what they are doing there.  They will openly admit to having no clue about how anything works and don’t really care to find out.

There is no way

A few of my friends are adamant that their kids not engage in any communication via social media and are openly fearful about anything concerning technology.  They are typically also extremely controlling of everything their kids do if they are on any of these platforms.

Let’s Talk About it

Yet other parents are curious and involved.  They have frequent and open discussions with their kids about the apps they are using and how they are using them.  Despite this, these parents have lots of questions about the a apps themselves and how they work, in particular, how to keep kids safe.

And many of us fall somewhere in between.  Frankly, it feels like we’re swimming in unchartered waters without a life raft most of the time!

Enter the Fears, Cheers, Unclears Parent & Teen Community Event!

Parenting today is complicated.  What’s Snapchat? Instagram? Twitter?  How much time is too much time to be online?  How do I keep my kids safe, while giving them the space they need to grow into responsible adults?  Our panel discussion of adults and teens will start conversations around some of the questions that we have as we parent in a connected, digital age.

Get involved!  Please submit your questions for our panelists by clicking here.

Live in York Region? Register for this FREE event here.

Not in York Region?

We will be live-streaming this event.  Check @BullyFreeYR for the link closer to the event date.

OR

Consider organizing your own event.  Look for the local chapter of the Awesome Foundation, approach your local Council,  and assemble a panel of community members.  I’d be happy to help you get started!

This initiative was made possible by the Awesome Foundation Grant and the generosity of the Town of Newmarket.

Check out the blog post New Roads GM Group wrote about our upcoming event here.

Here is great post related to this topic, Protecting or Ignoring, by George Couros, and an article by Andrew Campbell posted in the Toronto Star, Are Kids Behaving Badly Online.

Attribution: The title Fear, Cheers, & Unclears comes from a protocol I used at a Ministry of Education (Ontario) session, but the original source of the protocol is unknown to me.