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7 Fall Driving Safety Tips

7 Fall Driving Safety Tips

The following post is a guest blog from Jason Fidishun. Jason loves working with John’s Driving School, a company dedicated to teaching residents of Lower Bucks County proper driving techniques for over 40 years. When Jason isn’t teaching, he enjoys spending time with his family and traveling.

7 Fall Driving Safety Tips

Throughout the fall and into the holiday season, thousands of parents pack their college students up to move to a university, while other residents head out on the roads to visit family and friends. Roads and highways quickly become over-crowded, so it is important to drive with caution on the roads. Heed these driving safety tips to lessen you or your young driver’s chances of being involved in an accident on the highways this fall.

Buckle up.  Whether you are coasting around your favorite mountain town or cruising down a highway, it is important to always wear your seatbelt. Make sure that children are safely buckled into the backseat, and that infants are tucked into properly secured car seats. Wearing a seatbelt can mean the difference between life and death in a car accident, so be sure to buckle up when heading out on the road.

Check tires. Give your tires a thorough inspection before heading out this fall. Test the air pressure, and inspect for any leaks or punctures that could cause problems on the road. Ensure that there is a spare tire in your trunk in case anything goes wrong during your travels.

Service your vehicle. Before taking any kind of road-trip, it is a good idea to have your car inspected to ensure it is running properly. Have your oil changed, tires rotated, and battery checked to prevent breakdowns on the highways.

Observe speed. It is extremely important to monitor your speed at all times while operating a car. This is especially important when driving on major highways, and through towns where the speed may only be 25 miles-per-hour. Make yourself aware of the speed limit in the area you are in, and pay attention for changes in speed throughout your travels.

Have patience. You are more than likely to experience traffic when traveling this fall, especially on the weekends. Just remember to take it easy, and do not rush or drive erratically. It is better to arrive late to your destination safely than to never get there at all.

Watch out. Pay attention to the road and the things surrounding your car at all times. Avoid looking away from the roads and becoming distracted by texting or searching for good music. Be especially careful of other drivers around you, as they may not be paying close attention to you or your vehicle. Also watch out for pedestrians attempting to cross the street, as they have the right of way at crosswalks.

Be prepared.  Keep your vehicle stocked with items to use in case of emergency. Have a first aid kit handy, as well as items like flares and reflective traffic warning triangles to warn other vehicles in the event of a breakdown.

In order to arrive safely to your destination, heed these driving safety tips.

photo credit: Nicholas A. Tonelli via Flickr cc

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Snappening: What Snapchat’s Third Party Hack Means for Our Kids

Snappening: What Snapchat’s Third Party Hack Means for Our Kids | MamaBear App

In the wake of celebrity iCloud security breaches came another digital information privacy hack. Only this time it’s not celebrity information that was shared with strangers online; it was our children’s.

In mid-October, The Pirate Bay posted almost 98,000 files that included 13GB of photos and videos originally sent through the social media app Snapchat, according to Mashable.

Social media journalists called the leak the “Snappening,” and as parents, we need to be familiar with what this privacy leak means for our children.

What Information Was Released?

Over half of Snapchat’s users are between the ages of 13 and 17, which means the hacked content was generated primarily by children.

Snapchat’s users often send and receive private photos and videos via the social media app. They feel safe sharing private information through the app because it is designed to delete information after a certain amount of time or alert the user that the image has been saved (if another user captures the image via screenshot).

This application feature leads many teens and kids tend to think Snapchat is a secure place to share private information they normally wouldn’t share. That private information often includes racy, nude, or illicit images.

How Did the Information Get Out?

Snapchat’s servers were not hacked, and the images and videos were not taken out of their database. They were access through a third-party site called Snapsaved.com.

Snapsaved allowed users to save and access their snaps online, which goes against the main principle of Snapchat’s program. On Snapsaved, images and videos can be saved without the sender’s knowledge, also unlike Snapchat’s app.

The third party app has since taken down its site and released the following statement via their Facebook page, “As soon as we discovered the breach in our systems, we immediately deleted the entire website and the database associated with it. As far as we can tell, the breach has effected [sic] 500MB of images, and 0 personal information from the database.”

So What Does This Mean for Our Kids?

There have been mixed reports about whether or not the leaked content included illicit images of children. But the big message here is that this should be a warning.

Related: Helping Your Teen be Safe on Social Media

Kids need to understand that the information they share online is not as private as they think. Even when shared on sites that seem secure, information may still be leaked. Before they capture, send, or share an image, our kids need to consider the possibility that the image may be shared without their consent. They should always think before posting anything personal or reputation damaging.

Hackers are out to prove that they can access information that is off limits, and they don’t care if the information is from celebrities, ordinary people, or our children.

As parents, it is our job to teach our children about the danger of oversharing on social sites and to monitor the way our children are using those sites. Learn how MamaBear Family Safety App can you help connect with your kids on their social media accounts.

 

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POV Swap: The Ideal Parent and the Ideal Coach

POV Swap: The Ideal Parent and the Ideal Coach

This is a collaborative article written by TeamSnap and MamaBear

Sometimes it can be hard to see things from the eyes of another. You might think you have it all figured out, but so does the other guy. But especially when it comes to dealing with someone involved with your children, like coaches or teachers, it’s important to keep their point of view in mind. And of course, they should try to do the same!

With that idea, TeamSnap and MamaBear decided to pull a “Freaky Friday” sort of swap, with MamaBear exploring what a parent’s idea of an ideal coach is and TeamSnap expounding on the coach’s idea of what the ideal sports parent is.

From the Parent’s Point of View: The Ideal Sports Coach

Coaches are role models, mentor figures and advisors — sometimes for life, sometimes only for a season — but they sure do make an impression on our kids.  Our active, on-the-go MamaBear families rely on their kids’ coaches to help shape the meaning of hard work, camaraderie and reliability. Here are our top three observations of an ideal sports coach.

  1. Inspire.  The team talk at the end of every game doesn’t have to be a Jimmy V. tearjerker, but there’s nothing more motivating than a good ‘ol coach pep talk. Certain phrases from coaches will be carried on and used in our kids’ lives well beyond playing sports. The influence coaches have to inspire determination can be more meaningful than realized.
  2. Communicate on level.  The instruction from a coach to “back up” could mean a couple of things to a 9 year old up to the plate in a baseball game. Step further back in the box toward the catcher? Take a step away from the plate? Rather than continue restating “back up” with no real response from the player, give more detail, realize they don’t understand what you’re instructing and try another approach. Every kid comprehends instruction differently.
  3. Have Fun. We’ve all seen the frustrated coach yelling, throwing his hat to the ground or storming off the field. The usual parent sentiment is, “Can’t they just have some fun?”  Really. Lighten up. Instruction and constructive feedback will make the game more fun for everyone. Patience, self-awareness and a smile with a thumbs-up will go a long way.

It takes a village to raise kids — parents, extended family, friends, coaches and MamaBear, too.  We save you time and get you in the know with notifications about your kids’ daily activity in social media and provide peace of mind with location updates, all in an effort to get you talking about responsibility, safety and independence.

From the Coach’s Point of View: The Ideal Sports Parent

We all know what “bad” sports parents are like. The stereotype is portrayed on TV, in movies, and we all see our fair share of them in person, too. But what do “good” sports parents look like?

Ideal sports parents vary depending on the age group, the team and the coach, of course, but they all have a few characteristics in common. We took a look at our more than 7 million users here at TeamSnap, an online and mobile tool for managing sports teams, and came up with three of the best sports parents behavior:

  1. They offer to help. We all know it’s easier to criticize than to jump in and lend assistance. Ideal sports parents know this and not only offer their opinion but also their time, dedication and resources. Ideal sports parents volunteer to host the end-of-season BBQ. They volunteer for drink duty (or better yet, they volunteer to manage drink duty assignments using team management software). They offer their SUV for carpool runs. They understand that the coaches (often volunteers themselves) can’t do it all on their own, and they actively step up.
  2. They’re responsive. Every coach’s pet peeve is asking the same question a million times. Whether it’s checking to see who can make the game, asking parents to pay team dues or asking parents to update their contact information, coaches would rather be actually coaching than managing these administrative tasks. Luckily, sport team management software now exists to automate many of these tasks, but it doesn’t work if parents don’t respond! Ideal sports parents get their forms in on time, they update their kids’ availability status online or however it’s required, and they answer questions when asked … the first time!
  3. They control their emotions. Parenting is, by nature, an emotional experience. You want to guard your kids from anything that might hurt them and ensure they’re getting the best experiences they can from life. Keeping those emotions in check, especially in front of the kids, is an absolute must for the ideal sports parent though. Not only are confrontations between parents and coaches or parents and refs or even parents and other parents embarrassing for the child, they also undermine the authority of the ref or the coach, confusing kids about who they should listen to during a game or at practice. Surely, part of the reason you encouraged your child to join a team is to teach teamwork and responsibility, so exhibit those qualities yourself from the sidelines!

Next time you’re asked to do something by the coach or attending your child’s game, ask yourself, am I doing all I can to be the “ideal sports parent”? And check out the TeamSnap youth sports blog and podcast for more on the sports parent experience.

 

Image Credit: Bigstock

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Dangers of Talking to Strangers Online

Dangers of Talking to Strangers Online

When you see your child texting or chatting online, you may assume they are communicating with friends and family. But that may not always be the case.

A study from Cox Communications found that 69% of teens regularly receive personal messages online from strangers. Many parents may be unaware of this because only 21% of teens who receive messages from strangers tell a trusted adult.

Kids aren’t talking about encounters with online strangers, but parents need to.

Know the Facts

If you think your child is safe from online stranger solicitation, you are wrong. The San Diego District Attorney (SDDA) reported that over 45 million children ages 10-17 use the Internet, and among them:

  • close to 60% of teens have received an e-mail or instant message from a stranger, and half have communicated back
  • one in five has been sexually solicited

The odds that your child or teen has encountered a solicitation from a stranger online are high, and there is also a chance that those messages were inappropriate or lewd.

Restrict Stranger Chat Sites

There are a few social sites that promote chatting with strangers. Parents should familiarize themselves with those sites so they can recognize if their children are using them.

  • Omegle – Randomly connects users with strangers and allows them to chat via text or video chat. It is known to often include sexual material.
  • Imeetzu – Randomly connects users with strangers, requires no registration, and permits text, video, and group chats.
  • Tohla – Opens chat windows within the site for chatting one-on-one with strangers.
  • Bazoocam – Is an international chat site that pairs users with strangers for video chat sessions.

Parents should consider banning these sites, so their children fully understand the danger associated with communicating through these channels.

Educate Yourself on Chat Lingo

Because some kids and teens don’t fully understand the dangers of talking to strangers online, they may engage in this behavior. If they know you disapprove, they may attempt to hide it. So educate yourself on the chat lingo they may use to hide their conversations.

ChatSlang has a full list of terms that parents should recognize. Among them:

  • 9 or C9 – Parent in room
  • CD9 – Parents are watching
  • SPROS – Stop parents reading over shoulder
  • KPC – Keeping parents clueless
  • ASLP – Age/Sex/Location/Picture

These are only a few of the acronyms kids use to attempt to keep their parents in the dark. So keep an eye out for any unusual acronyms and question your child if you don’t understand their messages.

Take Safety Precautions

Educating yourself on the dangers of online stranger encounters is the first step in protecting you kids. The next step is educating your kids, and that means talking to them about it.

Related: Protecting Kids from Internet Stranger Danger

The SDDA reports that, “71% of parents stop supervising Internet use by their children after the age of 14, yet 72% of all Internet-related missing children cases involve children who are 15 years of age or older.”

It’s important to continue to protect and educate your children even into their teens. Keep lines of communication open so they feel comfortable coming to you in the event a stranger contacts them online, and stay connect with apps like MamaBear Family Safety (available for iPhones and Andriods) that helps you see who is talking to your kids in social media environments.