parenting

With some of us still in summer vacation mode, and others of us heading back to school, the one thing we all have in common is that we're taking a crapload of photos of our kids. I realize we do this every day out of the year, but vacati…

With my daughter in Japan for the entire month of July, we needed to come up with a communication plan, most of which involved texting apps because they're free. Whether you've got a teen or college student heading overseas, or you're tr…

If you thought your kids tech-savvy as toddlers, it's amazing to see how quickly they pick up video games when they get a little older. They know what's hot and what's not faster than Mario with a super star power-up. Turns out there are…

If you suddenly see someone trying to call you from Instagram, don't freak out. It's the new Instagram video chat feature that just launched. Related: How to post photos from your Instagram Feed to your Instagram Story To make a call, yo…

The good news: most teens know that sexting is a crime. The bad news: older teens are less likely to think sexting will have negative consequences. All this from a new study about teens and sexting, conducted by researchers at Boston Uni…

Turn that summer screen time into learning time at your local Apple Store thanks to their annual free summer camps . We've been lucky enough to snag a spot for our own kids in previous years and they've loved it. The catch: the spots go …

I've become extremely diligent about using a moisturizer with an SPF that I slather all over my face and hands on a daily basis, but I had absolutely no idea that staring into my phone and computer could be causing skin damage. Well, tha…

As someone who grew up on Highlights magazine and took everyone opportunity to introduce it to her kids, I was so excited to hear that they were launching a podcast for kids, and from the makers of Wow in the World! I loaded it up on my …

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 …

I am not going to say "I told you so!" when it comes to Snapchat , but it's mighty tempting after the recent launch of Cosmopolitan's new Cosmo After Dark stories that go live every Friday at 6pm EDT. And hey, I even wrote a book about s…

We declutter our closets, and rotate our kids' toys, but what about all those apps on your phone right now? Or the notifications pinging you every few minutes? Do I even need to bring up how many photos you have on your phone? Related: 6…

Over the years, we've tried myriad tech gadgets here over on Cool Mom Tech, and there are a good handful (maybe two) that we continue to use over and over again because they make our lives a whole lot easier. And cooler. Or at least we t…

We've been fans of the YouTube Kids app ever since it launched a few years ago, but as more and more publishers are creating content on YouTube, it's not surprising that there have been some issues in terms of what ends up showing up as …

Just when I thought I was the consummate binge watcher, I stumbled upon this post over at IHeartRadio that pretty much blew my mind. Turns out, Netflix has a bunch of secret codes, that when added to a url will allow you to jump to all s…

With all the recent data breaches and Facebook privacy issues , we're getting lots of questions about private browsing, also known as "incognito mode." Should you be using it? If you already do, is your information safe? Here's what you …

This is a sponsored message from WEYV If you've got a separate music app, magazine app, audiobook app, they can certainly add up. Especially when you're talking about media for a whole family. So instead of of flipping through multiple a…

You might remember a few months ago when Apple announced that they are purposely slowing down your iPhones to prevent them from shutting down. This after we all thought we were going a little crazy when a new iPhone (and iOS) would launc…

As someone who is pretty constantly tethered to her smartphone, it's no surprise that I feel as though I'm addicted to it. The challenge for me is that I use my phone for work, but I also enjoy looking at social media (and apps, and...) …

I recently moved into a new home and needed a way to get rid of some of my old stuff (furniture, bikes, 4000 stuffed animals). Upon the recommendation of a couple of trusted friends, I decided to give Facebook Marketplace a try. As much …

A few years ago, we featured the Kickstarter campaign for The Light Phone , a gadget that was designed to help people separate themselves from their smartphones. Well, they've recently launched The Light Phone 2 and it's blowing up Indie…

If you're like us, you find yourself using Google to check the same recipes and ratios over and over again. How much water for brown rice? What amount of butter do I need for that pie crust again? That's why we're loving this clever iPho…

Managing my kids activities -- and the time it takes me to get them there -- is one of the more complicated parts of parenting for me. Carpooling is the solution that not only saves my sanity, but also helps out the environment. We have …

If you're like me, you scramble to text your partner the items you need as you think of them, which makes for a pretty disorganized shopping list. But since discovering the AnyList app in our Recipe Rescue Facebook group , my grocery sho…

The PyeongChang Winter Olympics are here, hooray, which for us means staying up way too late to watch which athletes will take home the gold. So much for sleep these next few weeks. If you're wondering how to stay tuned in to all the act…