Ask Denny Strecker

Sitham asked:


Sleep Well – Stay Healthy!

As we retire to sleep first thing we ought to experience is the darkness and the quite atmosphere. But when we try to sleep, suddenly we think of the credit bills, appointments and pending files. A lot of thoughts come to our mind and it goes on. And after lying awake for a few hours we drift off to seep; and soon you hear the alarm ringing!

Most of us have some kind of trouble in sleeping occasionally; for some it is a chronic problem. Sleep deprivation is due to the high-paced lifestyle causing the lack of time to get the sleep we need. When we do not get the amount of sleep we need we accumulate a sleep debt. But, taking sleeping pills is not the solution. This sleep debt has to be paid back or else sleepiness will continue to worsen. Many people try to pay back the debt on the weekends resulting in the disruptions of their circadian rhythm. Most doctors would agree that a lifestyle change can do the trick and that there is no reason for pharmaceutical solutions.

Hence, in the interest of avoiding sleeping pills, let us look at some smart tips on how to fall asleep:

Establish consistent waking times

Our sleep-wake cycle is regulated by a “circadian clock” in our brain. The body needs to balance both sleep time and wake time. A regular waking time in the morning strengthens the circadian function and can help with sleep onset at night.

Keep a regular bedtime and wake-up time.

It is important to keep a regular bedtime and wake-time, even on the weekends when there is the temptation to sleep more. Stick to it, even on weekends. This will help your body know when to feel alert and when to feel sleepy.

Use a comfortable mattress and cushion

Make sure your mattress is comfortable and supportive. Use comfortable pillows and a good cushion that holds your head in the same relationship to your shoulders and spine as when you are standing upright.

Eat at least 2 hours before you go to bed

Eating or drinking too much may make you less comfortable when setting down for bed. It is best to avoid a heavy meal too close to bedtime. Also, spicy foods may cause heartburn, which leads to difficulty falling asleep and discomfort during the night. Try to restrict fluids close to bedtime to go to the bathroom.

 Make the bedroom a sleep-only zone

Remove most toys, games, televisions, computers, and radios if your child has trouble falling asleep or is frequently up at nigh. These items can be powerful cues for wakefulness.

Establish a regular, relaxing bedtime routine

Avoid worrying and thinking before bedtime like working, paying pills, engaging in competitive games or family problem-solving. If you are unable to avoid tension and stress, it may be helpful to learn relaxation therapy from a trained professional. Finally, avoid exposure to bright light before bedtime because it signals the neurons that help control the sleep-wake cycle that it is time to awaken, not to sleep.

Avoid caffeine (e.g. coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate), nicotine (e.g. cigarettes, tobacco products), alcohol close to bedtime

Caffeine is a stimulant, which means it can produce an alerting effect. Caffeine products such as coffee, tea, colas and chocolate remains in the body on an average from 3 to 5 hours. But they can affect some people up to 12 hours later. Even if you do not think caffeine affects you, it may be disrupt and change the quality of your sleep. Avoiding caffeine within 4 hours of going to bed can help improve sleep quality.

However, exercising sporadically or right before going to bed will make falling asleep more difficult. In addition to making us more alert, our body temperature rises during exercise and takes as much as six hours to begin to drop. A cooler body temperature is associated with sleep onset. Hence finish your exercise at least 3 hours before bedtime. Late afternoon exercise is the perfect way to help you fall asleep at night

Keep your bedroom peaceful

Create a room that’s ideal for sleeping. Adjust the lighting, temperature and humidity level to your preferences. Make sure your room is well- ventilated and the temperature consistent.



Lucas

us drugstore asked:


Like millions of other Americans, I often have trouble with insomnia — either I can’t fall asleep, or I awake prematurely and am unable to get back to sleep.



The following sleep tips, compiled from various sources, may prove helpful to some of my fellow insomniacs.

If you’ve been lying in bed but are beginning to fear you’re not going to drop off, try some of these techniques: Count sheep or count backwards from 100 (one of my favorites) to stop yourself from thinking about the problems of yesterday or tomorrow; breathe deeply for awhile; or visualize some peaceful place. Only use your bed for sleeping or having sex, not for reading, doing paperwork, watching TV, snacking, or making phone calls. If you can’t get to sleep after lying in bed for 30 minutes or more, get up for awhile. What to do? Try reading something incredibly boring. Keep regular bedtime hours. Develop a bedtime routine. Avoid alcohol right before bedtime — a nightcap might get your mind fuzzy enough to put you to sleep, but such sleep may be interrupted by periods of awakening. By contrast, the stress-lowering effect of a drink with dinner may help to promote sleep later. Before bedtime, avoid tobacco and caffeinated beverages (not just coffee, but other drinks like tea, cola, and Dr. Pepper). Avoid naps (or falling asleep in front of boring TV programs, as I do). Exercise every day, but not shortly before bedtime since exercise gets the adrenaline going. Try to get up at the same time every day rather than sleeping in on weekends. If you use an illuminated clock for a wakeup alarm, place it where you can’t keep looking at it to check the time. And you might also try some of these: a warm bath, warm milk, light bedtime snack, massage, or quiet music (which turns itself off automatically). Buy a firm mattress and keep your bedroom well ventilated (a cool temperature works best for me). Use earplugs for extreme quiet. Avoid stimulating reading or television shows late at night. If you have a painful joint or a headache, take a pain pill before bedtime (but be sure it doesn’t contain caffeine).

If the insomnia stubbornly persists, check with your doctor to make sure some underlying health problem (such as depression, anxiety, hyperthyroidism, heart failure, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) isn’t keeping you awake …read more





Riley

Childcare Education Institute asked:


Good communication between parents and caregivers in the early childhood setting is very important.  Both parents and caregivers have a goal of providing children with the best learning and growing environments.  Caregivers should strive to create trust between the parents and themselves so they can work together for the good of the children.

Creating trust between parents and caregivers involves using an open communication system that benefits the children, parents and caregivers. Caregivers are better able to help children learn when they communicate with the parents about the child. They learn from the parents about each child’s family, culture, home life, and language.

In the early childhood setting, we communicate with parents for a variety of reasons. In all our interactions with parents, we should create a positive and trusting environment by being respectful and honest.

After parents have decided to enroll their child, seize your chance to get to know them and encourage them to become involved in the classroom or at the facility. Greet parents at arrivals and dismissals. Make parents, who may be uncomfortable with the school environment, feel at ease.

Tell parents about yourself and your goals for the children in your class. Let them know when you are available for meetings with them. Explain the child care facility’s policies and answer any questions they might have. Inform them of any special events.

It may be hard to communicate with parents who have long work schedules. You may not

even see many of these parents because they send another relative or a close friend to transport the child to and from the facility. Other parents may find it hard to get involved in special activities because of an evening work schedule. Keep these parents informed of classroom happenings and special events through written notes, telephone or email communication.

We communicate in various ways and with many different styles. When we practice methods of positive and open communication, we can get to know parents and encourage them to build a partnership with us. Children, parents and teachers all benefit from the partnership.

Learn more about encouraging parent communication. Visit ChildCare Education Institute to discover over 100 online child care training courses that meet the continuing education requirements of the child care industry.  Register for a sample course and try online learning today!



Alexander

Michel Jayne asked:


As parents we are aware that quality sleep is an essential part of a child’s growth and well being. Most baby sleep disorders are a learned behavior. These can be overcome by changing the child’s environment before bedtime and gently teaching them to sleep independently.

Addressed here are 8 ways to help Mom, Dad and Baby have a good night sleep for days to come.

1. A bedtime Routine.

Babies and infants are creatures of habit. They enjoy the predictability of a sleep ritual so a regular bedtime routine will help settle your baby more quickly and also increase the chances of him or her sleeping through the night. Routine helps to establish baby’s sleep pattern and once it is established your baby will be happier, more content, and more likely to sleep through the night. This needs to be incorporated right away during the newborn/infant stage. However, its not late to get this routine functioning. It will become harder and take longer as your child gets older.

An example of a good routine is; Put your child in PJ’s, set the mood by dimming the lights and establishing a quiet relaxed atmosphere, cuddle time with mom/dad. This is followed by baby in the cot with a story or lullabye. You could give a bath before bedtime as well, or a baby massage which babies love and parents love to do! Be consistent with the above routine. It must be done on a nightly basis until it becomes a habit for your child.

2. Do not feed your baby to sleep.

Feeding a baby to sleep can create a problem with their sleep patterns. The baby will soon begin to recognize that you feed him or her at bedtime. This will become something they depend on and expect. This is the same issue with waking up at night as well. There are several ways to deal with making this change.

• Firstly, change the time or the amount of time you feed your baby when nearing his or her bedtime. Doing so will gradually remove the association of bedtime with feeding.

• Another option is to feed your child earlier in the evening instead of as a bedtime routine. When you do these things your baby will not associate feeding with bedtime. This will help your baby to learn to fall asleep on his or her own accord.

3. Bottle and breast feeding.

Childcare professionals believe that combining formula bottle feedings and breast feedings can lead to sleep problems. With breast feeding the milk supply is replenished naturally by the breast with each feeding that takes place. When formula milk via a bottle is given instead of breast milk, the breast milk supply can lesson. So with the next breast feeding, there may not be much milk supply as previously. With this, your baby will require more frequent feedings and this is why he will wake up during the night, possible several times for a feeding. Of course, infants need to be woken up and fed every few hours but once this stage passes, your baby is able to go through the night without having to be fed, provided his appetite is satisfied in his last feeding before bed.

4. Be aware of when your child is getting tired.

You can recognize this when they pull their ears and rub their eyes.

5. Teach your baby how to self-sooth to sleep.

You can achieve this by associating soothing objects with bedtime (child safety proof of course!) Give your baby or let him choose a toy or favorite blanket to take to bed. This way when your baby wakes up during the night he could reach for it and go back to sleep.

6. Feed your baby enough during the day.

If your baby wants to play all day and not eat enough, he will want to eat during the night instead of sleep. Ensure that while he is playing and having fun he eats a nutritious diet.

7. Create a daily nap time routine.

The sooner you start this the better. A nap helps your child sleep firmer at night. The nap should be timed appropriately to his bedtime so your child has time to play, do other things and have dinner well before bedtime.

8. Childcare provider training.

If you have a childcare provider also responsible for putting your child to bed ensure they are following the same routine and rules you are. If there is inconsistency in the routine the procedure will take longer to take effect and your child will not be consistent with his bedtime behavior.

Parents all over the world struggle with learned baby sleep disorders. You are not alone, as many of us have walked before you. Much patience is required. Consistency is a must. It takes time so do not expect miracles overnight but throughout your journey you and your baby can look forward to a few more nights of sleep by utilizing the eight tips above, until it becomes a regular process.



Zachary

Todd A. Smith asked:


Most people can understand how prison can destroy one’s life. One mistake can put an end to one’s dreams and alter their remaining years forever. However, very little emphasis is placed on what effect prison has on the children of incarcerated parents.

The Sentencing Project, a national non-profit agency dedicated to research an advocacy on criminal justice policy issues, recently released a study that emphasizes the destruction of stability for children of incarcerated parents and what can be done to help their upbringing after a loss of a parent to the justice system.

The Sentencing Project reports that often these children rarely visit their parent(s) while incarcerated and many jailed parents report never receiving a visit at all from their children. The report also shows that these children are much more likely to drop out of school, and engage in destructive behavior themselves, which sometimes leads to their own incarceration.

According to the report, “In 2007 there were 1.7 million children in America with a parent in prison, more than 70 % of whom were children of color … Many children, especially in cases of women’s incarceration, were in single-parent homes and are then cared for by a grandparent or other relative, if not in foster care.”

The rise in the number of children of incarcerated parents can be attributed to the rising number of mothers in prison. The number of mothers in prison has increased by 112% from 29,500 in 1991 to 65,600 in 2007. Furthermore, in 2007 one in 15 African American children had a parent in prison, compared to one in 42 Hispanic children and one in 111 White children.

Another factor the can affect a child who has a parent in prison is the marital status of their parents. Stereotypically, a child from a two parent home can better cope with having a parent incarcerated than someone who has to begin a new life with a different guardian in a different home. According to the report, “More than half of all incarcerated parents have never been married, and increase of 19% since 1997, and only 17% of incarcerated parents were married at the time of their imprisonment, a decrease of 28% since 1997 … Although most incarcerated parents have never been married, many have lived with their children prior to arrest. Among parents in federal prisons in 2004, [approximately] half (48%) had lived with their children in the month prior to their arrest.”

Even after their release, children of incarcerated parents have to cope with reestablishing the bond with a parent that they have grown up without for some period of time. This is often made more difficult because of economic and geographic factors.

However, the Sentencing Project has offered many suggestions in their report that they believe will aid in this transition. The non-profit organization believes the Adoption and Safe Families ACT (ASFA), signed by President Bill Clinton in 1997 should be repealed. This bill authorized the termination of parental rights for any parent with a child living under foster care for 15 of the last 22 months. The average prison sentence exceeds 22 months.

Additionally, The Sentencing Project believes correction institutions should support parent/child relationships. According to the report, “The Bedford Hills, NY, women’s prison, for example, has long maintained a program by which newborn babies can live with their mothers in prison for a time.” Furthermore, the organizations believes that laws prohibiting former inmates from receiving food stamps has no useful purpose and adversely affects the children of incarcerated parents.

Therefore, the Sentencing Project believes that even if a parent made a mistake the ruined their future, the future of their children should not be ruined in the process.



Jennifer

Abhishek Agarwal asked:


Being a single parent involves many difficult challenges. It’s even harder than it looks. Single parents deal with challenges all day, every day. Many of those challenges arise from being not only single but a parent. There are children to care for and take care of. And because you are the only parent, everything you do carries greater weight.

No matter what you do, as a single parent, you must think of its effect on your children. You must be diligent in keeping up with their activities and their thoughts as they grow up in a single-parent home. In fact, the biggest challenge of being a single parent is the effect of your status on your children.

The transition to a single-parent family is difficult for kids. They may feel abandoned or insecure. They may feel isolated and different from other kids, even if there are more single-parent families than ever before.

Your children may resent you for the loss of your spouse, or they may have unresolved issues with the missing parent. As a single parent, it’s your job to keep them talking about what’s going on with them and what they think. Even though they may resist, you need to get them to talk to you about their worries, their fears, and their anger.

And you need to let them know they’re all right. They’re normal kids despite their circumstances. They aren’t responsible for the change, and they don’t have to make up for it. You should give them as normal a childhood as possible and be a role model. Even when they don’t act that way, they look to you as their example of what a grown-up is and does.

Your kids need to know you’re there for them, no matter what. You have a busy schedule trying to earn a living and manage the household. But you must never be too busy for your children. Even when you are in financial trouble, the job can’t take priority over the kids. They need to know how important they are to you. They need to know you love them more than anything else.

You’re going to have to build a new relationship with your children. As a single parent, you’re the only source of affection and guidance in the home. Even if you weren’t close before, you’re going to have to get close now. One good way to do that is to do lots of fun family activities.

Another way that will help the whole family is to assign specific chores to your children that will help keep the household running efficiently. Giving them responsibility will help them feel that they belong and that they are important. It will also give them a sense of accomplishment necessary to build a healthy self-image.

Single parents need to admit that they need help and then get help. You can’t do everything by yourself. Trying to may ruin your health, your attitude, and your relationships with your children. Getting to know your neighbors is a great way to find people who can help you look after the kids when you must be away. Neighbors can also help with household repairs and yard work.

Your neighbors may also be adult companions and role models for your children, but you must be careful. Get to know your neighbors well before you allow your children to be alone with them. Remember that the world is a more dangerous place than it was when you were a child. There’s no substitute for good parental judgment.

Time is the enemy when you’re a single parent. You probably have to work, and that means being outside the home a lot. Unless you have help, it also means your children may spend a lot of time at home alone. You’ll need to take extra precautions and lay out specific rules for time you’re not there.

Children who are alone a lot are vulnerable to drugs and criminal behavior. Gang activities are sky-rocketing. You’ll have to find a way to monitor your kids while you’re not home. This difficult challenge must be met head-on or your children may pay for it with their very lives.

You may have a challenge with your children’s attitudes about you as well. They may blame you for their situation or think you’re not doing things right. They may not show you the respect you want and expect. And they may feel cheated if you can’t attend special events like birthdays, PTA meetings, parent-teacher conferences, recitals, and other events that parents usually attend. These time pressures are especially difficult for single parents.

If you can’t make the time to make at least some of these events, it’s time to have a talk with the boss. Maybe you can work out a special work schedule or do some of your work at home. If you can’t find a solution with your current job, you may need to look for other more flexible working arrangements. If both are impossible, it’s important that your children know and understand why you can’t be with them. Be honest. They’ll understand the truth better than no explanation at all.

It’s important to remember that you can’t just give time to your kids. It must be quality time that helps them grow and mature. They need to know that you love them and that you need them. Never give them the idea that they’re a burden to you. Tell them often how much you love them. Listen to them. Ask them questions and listen to their answers. Show your interest in them as individuals. Even when time is limited, you can make the time you spend with them special and positive. It’s worth the trouble. And your reward is the love and respect of well-behaved, responsible children.

Even when life deals you and your children a bad hand, you can make life together enjoyable and productive. You can build healthy relationships with your kids and watch them become happy, productive young adults.

Despite the many hard challenges of being a single parent, you must always maintain your perspective and honor the most important priorities. It won’t always be hard or unpleasant. You’ll have many happy times and lots of love and laughter in your single-parent family as long as you keep a healthy positive attitude and keep on working toward a better life for you and your children.



Samuel

Coby Edmunds asked:


A parent, whether single or with a partner, is often blamed for anything that goes wrong with their children. Blame for the perceived wrongdoings of our children is probably one of the hardest burdens that we as parents have to carry.

The truth is that parents these days are time poor and their children are, more than ever before, influenced by many powerful outside sources. Most parents are doing the best they can with the knowledge they have. For the majority of people, this knowledge is based on how they were parented themselves. But times have changed, what worked for their parents and for them as children may not work now for their own families. Many people find that relying on what they learned from their own experience isn’t sufficient.

With just about everything that we do in life, we learn from our ‘mistakes’. Some of our mistakes are easy to move on from, others can last a lifetime and cause untold heartache.

Most people are born with parental instincts so parenting does come naturally to a certain extent. But who among us can say that they have not made mistakes? The evidence of some of our hasty parenting decisions can be in the form of defiant, uncommunicative or sullen children and teenagers, and these mistakes are not easy to live with.

Is there a better way? Yes, there is. Learning to become an effective parent can save a great deal of heartache.

Effective parenting is a learned skill and like just about everything else that we do, the more we practice effective parenting techniques, the better and more effective we become at parenting.

Effective parenting training gives us a better understanding of the complexities of our family, the pressures that our children face in the modern school setting, and the added pressure from part time work that many young people experience. It teaches us how to listen, understand and communicate with our children so that we do not make things worse, whilst still understanding that every child, family and situation is unique.

Can effective parenting training (EPT) help?

In short, effective parenting training takes some of the guess work out of parenting and provides strategies and tools that can be used to create a more harmonious home. If things are pretty good at home, proactive parenting is even better.

* EPT gives parents the opportunity to stop and look at their home situation from a different perspective. What were your goals when you started your family? EPT is a big step towards achieving those goals.

* EPT can help parents identify if they are working with or against each other. How do they reach consensus?

* EPT provides guidelines for putting things into order at home – creating a ‘bottom line’, revisiting values and establishing rules, boundaries and consequences. This step alone is critical. Too many rules become unworkable but rules and boundaries provide a baseline for the whole family and a structure with foundations for feeling safe with everyone knowing what is expected of them.

* Rules, boundaries and structure are meaningless to children and teenagers without loving, sincere and effective communication. EPT will teach parents how to listen and communicate effectively rather than inflaming situations.

* EPT will assist parents in understanding what their children need to experience in order to feel loved. Most parents do try to show their love but do not understand that what is perceived as love to one person may be quite different to another.

* Parents will understand how their children learn. Once again, because we are unique individuals, we all learn differently. This understanding can provide the parent untold and unique opportunities to help their children gain confidence at school.

With these tools and a firmer foundation upon which to move their families forward in a positive direction, parents and their children will feel empowered.

Children are resilient and forgiving and they do want to feel the love their parents have for them. It is essential for their growth into healthy young adults. Where there has been continuing conflict you can be pretty sure that some of those loving feelings have been lost. They can be reestablished. There has to be at least one ‘adult’ in a situation to turn things around; someone who is willing to take the responsibility to get things moving in the right direction.

Beginning parents will probably have a good understanding of some of the pitfalls in modern parenting – prevention is so much better than any cure.



Liam

Gareth Williams asked:


There are many ideas about how to raise children. Many new parents re-call how their mom and dad parented them and make parenting decisions based on what they did or did not like about how their parents raised them. In addition to re-calling memories from their childhood, they also reach out to gain support and advice from friends and family or maybe even take a parenting class. A very popular way to gain knowledge about parenting is to read books or an article on parenting styles written by Pediatricians or Psychologists. There are many different ways to raise children, but parents can now seek out Specialists to discover the parenting styles and practices that are the most effective and that lead to a positive outcome.

If you take the time to find an article on parenting styles you will find that parenting styles come in three main categories. These styles are Authoritarian, Permissive, and Democratic. Parents can be a mixture of these styles or fall in one or more categories. How a person was raised can have a lot to do with what type of parenting style they will have as parents themselves.

The Authoritarian parent always tries to be in control of their children. They set rules and expect for them to be followed. They usually do not like for their children to ask questions about why they are told to do something. Authoritarian parents, in general, are not very warm and affectionate to their children. Despite loving their children very much they are very critical of their children’s short comings. Children of these parents have a difficult time thinking for them self, as they are always told what to do and never have a chance to develop critical thinking skills.

In an article on parenting styles, the Permissive parent is described as one who has few rules or boundaries for their children. They are very warm and loving to their children despite their children’s faults or achievements. However, Permissive parents do sometimes get overwhelmed with the negative behavior of their children and don’t know how to fix it because they have gotten into the pattern of not enforcing rules and boundaries with their children.

The Democratic parenting style is one in which parents engage their children into discussions and rules setting. They allow their children to see what the consequences of their actions will be and help them to avoid pitfalls of those actions. If you read an article on parenting styles, you will find that the Democratic parent is more of a teacher than the obedience police. They allow natural consequences of their children’s actions to be the lesson. They do set reasonable and age appropriate boundaries for their children and are warm and loving despite performance.

As you can see, there are different styles of parenting to choose from. It is your choice as a parent to choose which style you want to have, and not just fall into one because that’s how you were raised. Be the parent that you want to be!



Robert

Jan Richards asked:


A fussy or crying baby can make for a fussy and often frustrated parent. There are many reasons a baby could be fussy or unable to sleep, including illness, colic, or something as simple as either too much noise or too little noise. Before altering your baby’s sleeping environment, take a moment to evaluate just why your baby has been fussy or upset at bedtime. Things like changes in the weather, a neighbor’s new puppy continually barking, a loud car stereo blaring, or a bright street light can all contribute to changing a baby’s otherwise familiar and comfortable sleeping environment. If after evaluating, you discover that there has been an environmental change that has occurred, but are out of your control, you might consider creating some ‘white noise’ in your baby’s environment to help drown out these unpleasant and loud sleep disruptors.

Noises that are repetitive and almost monotonous sounding are known as ‘white noise’ – noise that is occurring constantly, and, as a result, we’ve ‘tuned it out.’ There are many items in our house that create white noise that we might not even realize – our air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, clothes dryers, or fans all create white noise as they operate. Other things such as running water, an analog clock with a ticking second hand, or a fish aquarium also create white noise. These noises might actually help ‘drown out’ the disruptive external noises that are keeping your baby, and thereby you, from a good night’s sleep.

Another option might be to run a favorite lullaby on continuous play in your baby’s room. There are many options out there for newborns and toddlers alike in the music department of your favorite store. You could even put together a special mix just from mommy and daddy on your personal computer. Better yet, put together a recording of mommy and daddy’s soft, soothing and gentle voices, and baby will be back in dreamland before you know it – and so will you!



Mia

Bjorn Hardarson asked:


Parents want to guide and watch their children but at the same time know they cannot be there all the time sitting with them when they are online. So even though parents are aware of the danger of the internet, talk to their kids and monitor them at home, parents know it is not possible to be the one that keep them safe all the time on the internet. They also know even if they trust them well, there are accidental search that can lead to harmful and material even they are not looking for it. So deciding on buying parental control software is considered a logical and responsible step more parents are taking.

Buying parental control software could be something you just take few minutes in doing. You sit down in front of the computer, “Google” some right words for it, press a link and buy a product. At the same time there is not certain that best software’s are those that will appear in top ten of Google search and you might be want to consider thinking what do I want my parental control software be able to do for me?

You could start buy asking other parents what they are using and asking for their experience. You could also try to browse around test look at their sites and read about that software; even send email to the sales apartment. You should check if the software has a 15 days trial period so you can test the software. Check for things like is the software being updated, which is very important in this day by day changing online world were dangers of the internet is always changing and software that the parental control software needs to work with is also updating and changing.

The biggest question you need to ask yourself when deciding on buying parental control software is the function of it. What do you want the parental software to do for you? Parental control software do not all have the same features and possibilities and you should therefore spend some time on thinking “what kind of parental control software do I need” Most of them will do different things for you and you may need different things for best safe surfing in your family. The possibilities are enormous. Let’s go over few things parental control software may have in their toolbox, so for you to use it in your buying guide you can look for those things you want to have when browsing through parental control website doing your own parental control software review.

Filtering: Does the software have filtering option? Most software will filter (pornographic filter, hate site filters, making bomb filter, violence filter etc. sites for you, but you may want to think how and how much control you have over the filtering system. 1. Does the parental control software have a database of blocked and family friendly sites? 2. Does the software allow you to create additional filtering list of sites you want to block? 3. Does the software have ability for you to only allow certain sites you choose and filter all other sites? 4. Does the software have a allow list have the ability to allow sites permanently and therefore overriding all other filtering system. 5. Does the software have dynamic content filter that block sites based on the content on each site you open?

Blocking software: You may also want to know if the parental control software is also blocking software, allowing you to block software’s you may think is harmful.

1. Does the software Block p2P file sharing like e.g. torrent software that are often used to download illegal software, music, movies, games and adult material?

2. Does it block chat programs?

3. Does the software block games that are considered more addictive e.g. MMORPG games?

4. Does the software allow you to choose additional software from the computer and block it?

Monitoring Software: You may want to check if the parental control software allows you to monitor the overall use of the computer and give you a good report on what has been happening. Does the software monitor all keystrokes that will enable you to read what has been written on the computer based on the software the words were written in? You may also want to have a screen shots recording in the software to able you to see how what has been happening in a form of picture of the screen. The screen shots recording is also good as a proof if something bad happens, e.g. Predator harassing the child, or some other child bullying the child on chat application. With screen shots you have a proof of what has happened after these incidents. Some software also has email monitoring of incoming and outgoing emails. Last option you may want to check for if the software monitors all cut and paste-ing on the computer both picture and text.

Time control software: This is a feature that can be extremely important in avoiding the computer will take too much time from school work, friends, sports and possibly preventing internet addiction. You may want to look closely into if the software allows you to specify how many hours a month, week and per day. You may want to control differently at what time of day and different between weekdays and weekends. At last the possibility of controlling some specific behavior such as applications or watching movies could be an option you want to check for

Protecting Privacy: The internet is a dangerous place for kids with predators lurking in chat rooms the importance of protecting privacy is important factor in buying a safe surfing tool as parental control software. Therefore a software that allow you to block user for sending out private information as address or phone number and/or take screen shots and notify you when private information are being sent from the home computer.

Alerts and Reports: Parental control software is not as useful if it never tell you what is happening. Good report system is important to go over the computer use and good alert system that notify you in an email or SMS can be extremely important to be able to get alert as soon as something bad things happen.

There are many other factors to look for, how easy to use the software is, is it doing what it is supposed to do, what kind of support can I a get and does the website provide me with some other useful tools or information’s. There are of course other things as well to look for as does the software provides me with specific tool for specific things I am aiming to avoid or control. These specific things could be related to e.g. all the emerging internet addiction, that is gaming addiction prevention, gambling addiction prevention, pornographic and cybersex addiction prevention. Are there some helpful tools for younger children or older children .

You may also want to look at how sure am I of being able to control the computer and my kid’s not just get around the software. You want to choose a software that is password protected, can be set in stealth mode and stop others from changing anything in the computer control panel.

Most important thing is to take your time searching, reading, asking, testing and in the end when you are happy choosing the right parental control software.



Valeria