Below you will find brief summaries, pricing and links to some of the more popular internet control options I’ve found online. There are tons of others out there, but this is a start. Net Nanny Family Protection Pass – $59.99/year For use on up to 5 devices. Features: Internet Filter, Pornography Block, Time Management, Social Media Monitoring, Child Protection Software, Profanity Masking, Alerts and Reporting, Personal Accountability, Remote Management Right now they are offering a free license to Net Nanny Social for a year with a family protection pass. According to their website, this allows parents to “monitor their child’s…
Our parents could pretty safely stay ignorant of the technological advances of our day. (By our parents and our day, I am referring to those of us who were the teens of the 90s. Back when the internet was pretty much all text and used primarily by nerds. Not a hotbed for sexual predators and teenagers who don’t realize that the nude photo they just posted didn’t really disappear after it faded from the screen.) As parents of 2010s preteens and teens we do not have the luxury of being ignorant. We need to know what’s going on in our kids’…
BOYS. Every single one of the backsides in the back row of that photo belongs to a boy. Why is that a big deal you ask? Because my boys have long been almost the only boys in their age-group at church. Just Carter, Owen and a sea of girls. I’m sure at some point in a boy’s life, a lopsided ratio of boys to girls that lands heavy on the girl side is a good thing. In elementary school, not so much. On Sunday mornings, the Harms house was a battlefield: two boys with an arsenal of arguments and emotion…
The swings were empty, and I was close to tears. A wooden playset was about to make me cry. It was ridiculous really. We only lived in the house for six months. But I looked at the empty swingset while I stood in the empty house, and I thought of my three boys. Brothers who have this amazing propensity to find in each other the one nerve in a million that is most easily agitated and then patiently camp out on it until it causes the desired explosive reaction. During the past six months I’d often find those same button-pushing boys…
Here’s a link to my most recent article at Today’s Christian Woman. Christian Kids in Public School The response to this story has been great for the most part. Except for one pastor who doesn’t approve of my choices. (I’m sure there are more, but he’s the only one who has verbalized it.) Oh well. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, and I am confident in the decision our family has made. Go Ballard Bombers!