tips and tricks

Kids are pretty darn smart, but we can be smarter, parents! On this week's Out-Tech Your Kids podcast , we're talking about the ways kids can circumvent parental controls so you can be prepared, thanks to the members of our Out-Tech Your…

We've always said that all screen time is not created equal! And on this week's Out-Tech Your Kids podcast , we're talking about the benefits of social media for kids. Social media tends to get a bad rap -- let alone specific channels li…

Anyone else have thousands of photos on their phone like us? If you do, then you know how much of a pain it can be trying to find a photo in your albums. That's why on today's episode of Out-Tech Your Kids podcast , we're answering this …

"Don't read the comments" isn't going to fly when your kids are old enough to watch YouTube videos without you around, let alone managing their own TikTok accounts. But learning how to be a responsible commenter is a skill that comes in …

When our state was put under a stay-at-home order back in the middle of March, 2020, I told my 11-year old that she should start writing in her journal every day because this was going to be a time in history that her kids and their kids…

If you're like me, then your Facebook feed has been filled with everyone's new Facebook avatar. It's also been filled with people saying how they look nothing like them. And I have to be honest, I totally agree. So of course, I had to gi…

Anyone else the escape of audiobooks while we find moments to ourselves? These audiobook apps proved to be the perfect literary lifeline for me while I was stuck at home with my young children during the quarantine, and are keeping me go…

Over the years, we've shared our concerns with kids on Snapchat , which aren't really that surprising. We all know that it's terribly difficult to monitor. And we've seen our kids deal with the difficult issues that arise with Snap Maps …

A few months ago, we shared how to set up the Close Friends feature on Instagram , just in case you’ve got your kids (and their friends) following you and wanted to share something that they couldn’t see. Of course, whenever you do that,…

In what feels like a game of " Which Site Will Violate Our Privacy More This Week ?," Google remains consistent in their issues with user privacy and released an inconspicuous email to users to let them know that some Google Photos users…

Every now and then I'll spot a fantastic article shared by one of my Facebook friends, only to discover it was written a few years ago. Womp, womp. But in a few cases, like this Vice article about what screens are doing to our eyes (and …

We used to say "photos or it didn't happen," but it feels like 2020 is all about "filters or it isn't Instagram." You may have noticed folks you follow using wacky filters -- or oddly flattering filters that bathe them in a beautifully h…

We live in an age of photoshop and photo altering, and quite frankly, our teens and tweens are pretty savvy when it comes to pointing out (and complaining about) a model's face that's been de-wrinkled. But photos of women -- made to look…

With resolutions and goals for 2020 in mind, we know that a lot parents are thinking about technology and screen time. Wrangling screen time is a huge concern for many of you (and us), as well as the members of our Out Tech Your Kids Fac…

We're going into our 10th year of Cool Mom Tech and our 2nd year of our Out Tech Your Kids Facebook group that's almost at 4500 members! We know, we can't believe it either. Every year, we share our 10 most visited posts on Cool Mom Tech…

Every parent wants to know how to take better pictures, especially around Christmas. A few years ago I received the completely awesome gift of a DSLR camera, but I admit I haven't entirely learned how to use it properly. I've taken thous…

This past week, my 11-year old daughter and I had a long conversation about Snapchat. She's been begging me for awhile now, but lately, it's amped up because pretty much all her friends use it exclusively to communicate. I've been very r…

We know that " digital parenting " is quite the buzz phrase these days. Our approach to it has been similar to how we parent our kids around similar difficult topics (think non-alarmist, non-judgmental), except unlike the sex talk or the…

So your kids are obsessed with watching other people play video games and you can't quite wrap your mind around it. We decided to ask video gaming expert Dr. Rachel Kowert to weigh in on this phenomenon and tell us what we need to know. …

Whether your kids have had a smartphone for awhile now, or you're considering getting them started with one, it's important that they understand how to use it. And as we all know, when it comes to a smartphone, it's not as simple as dial…

Raising kids in a digital age presents all sorts of parenting challenges. That’s one of the many reasons we started Cool Mom Tech, along with our new Out Tech Your Kids Facebook Group (OTYK). And we talk about it a lot on our Spawned Par…

I often like adding Boomerangs to an Instagram Story to help change things up from still photos. But then, I either have to go shoot a Boomerang in Instagram (and figure out what to shoot) or open the Boomerang app itself. Not one of lif…

For lots of middle school kids, back to school means back to tech. Specifically: school-issued laptops. Of course, when we're thinking about our kids and tech that they don't own themselves, but they're responsible for day-in and day-out…

My daughter and I have the same taste in books, generally, so we love sharing anything good we've read lately. That's typically been much easier to do with hardcopy books than digital ones, but now you can set up a Family Library for you…