parenting tools Archives | Page 2 of 6

5 free parental controls for cable TV that you may not know about

by Cool Mom Staff | Entertainment, Tips and Tricks

One of parents’ biggest concerns about kids today, is the access they have to inappropriate content. Parents are often asking us for parental control devices, services and apps to help them moderate what kids’ can see and keep them safe. And there are...

What parents need to know about the new Amazon Teen shopping program

by Kate Etue | Websites Worth a Bookmark

Perhaps you’ve heard about the Amazon Teen shopping program, in which parents can set up an Amazon login for your teens to shop on their own. It includes lots of safeguards to make sure kids don’t spend more than you want them to, but is it a good idea? Or...

The new parental controls and screen time management tools coming to iOS 12. THANK YOU, APPLE.

by Liz Gumbinner | Best Apps

No judgments, parents — we too have admitted (often) that it can be hard to manage kids’ screen time, especially when our kids get older and we’re not attached at the hip. Well Apple gets it too, and in today’s big iOS 12 announcement,...

New study says too much screen time leads to unhappy teens

by Kristen Chase | Tips and Tricks

If you’ve been concerned about the amount of screen time your teens might be consuming, you’ve actually got some cause. According to a new study, teens who spent more time on their devices were less happy than those who invested more time in other...

Beyond Snapchat: 12 risky apps parents should watch out for.

by Cool Mom Staff | Internet Safety, Tips and Tricks

By now, everyone knows about Snapchat and kids right? It’s like Snapchat has come to epitomize the “watch out for kids and their apps.” But the truth is, there are so so many apps that can get kids into trouble, and it’s hard to keep up with...

A clever trick to boost your kids’ reading skills while they watch TV

by Kate Etue | Tips and Tricks

During the dry spell of summer, when our favorite TV shows were in their off season, my 10-year-old daughter and I got hooked on a fun Korean high-school drama series. But while we watched I noticed something I didn’t expect: her reading skills improved. And...

How to disable an iPad touchscreen using Guided Access: A huge lifesaver for parents

by Kate Etue | Tips and Tricks

My youngest child loves watching movies on our family iPad, but if your kids are like her, they can’t help tapping and touching the screen which then requires you to rewind, fast forward, or turn it back on 400 times. So when I found out how to disable the...

This app freezes kids’ phones until they answer your texts. Awesome or intrusive?

by Lexi Petronis | Family Safety Apps

Does this situation sound familiar, parents? You’re trying to get in touch with your tween or teen, but they’re ignoring your texts because they’re busy playing games on their phone, which also happens to be set on silent. Well, that’s what was...

Addicted to your iPhone? Try this one easy trick to seriously curb your screen time.

by Kate Etue | Tips and Tricks

I’ve been seeing a lot of research lately that seems to find a correlation between how much time we spend on our phones and our kids’ behavior. Specifically, their bad behavior. The constant distraction of pings and alerts from my phone that takes my...

10 questions parents should ask when writing a cell phone contract for kids

by Kate Etue | Tips and Tricks

Last year my husband and I gifted our two older kids with their own iPod and Kindle, and along with the devices came a contract that outlined our expectations for using them. As my friends have started getting wifi-connected tablets or phones for their kids, these...

NEW: The podcast that helps you be a savvier digital parent in under 15 minutes a week

Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz

Kristen Chase + Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks

We started Cool Mom Tech in 2010 to help make our increasingly digital lives easier, more organized, more meaningful, and more fun, however old your kids may be.

We love that it's grown to become the go-to source for millions of parents who want commonsense info about tech delivered with a smile.

We even have the privilege of sharing our tips + tricks with The TODAY Show, CNN, HLN, GMA, Nightline, newspapers and magazines around the country, and our favorite -- regular parents who stop us at PTA meetings and ask us how old kids need to be to get a smartphone, and whether they really need to panic about Snapchat.

(Answer: It's complicated.)

We're so glad you're here! And we hope we can help you too.