Teaching your child to withstand peer pressure is in every parent’s mental handbook for raising healthy, balanced kids.  However, what if the newest pressure facing the young generation doesn’t come from another person, but rather, um, a billboard?  Welcome to the future of marketing: gladvertising.

Slated to begin appearing as early as 2012, gladverts are digital outdoor advertisements that use cameras and facial-recognition software (that just sounds creepy) to detect a consumer’s mood.  The consumer, of course, constitutes: me, you, our kids, our grandma and ex-brother-in-law, even that annoying neigbour – basically anyone who moseys across the camera’s “eye”.  Once the gladvert reads the victim’s mood, it will push products and brands that are relevant to that person’s emotional state.  For example, if the gladvert detects a woman walking by in a grumpy mood, it may display chocolate. Suddenly the poor gal (who has been trying to lose her last 10 pounds of post-pregnancy weight) finds herself wolfing down a Kitkat bar (and regretting later, thereby increasing her grumpiness).  But, the chocolate company will have achieved their coveted sale.  Yes – I have a cynical attitude toward this new advertising ploy.

The whole sci-fi inspired move toward turning our every emotion into a “brand” experience is creepy, at best, and downright criminal, at worst.  Shouldn’t a person be allowed to just wallow in his or her emotional conundrum (be it joyful or sorrowful) without having to worry about being exploited by a company seeking profit?  Unfortunately, although the answer to the question is a definitive yes, the near future will see gladvertising pop up in cities across the globe.

Parents are advised to learn about the gladverts cropping up in their own communities and make their kids aware of the impact such advertising will have on them. With commercialism already so prevalent in our children’s lives, this new trend will only add to parents’ efforts to teach kids that buying stuff doesn’t ever resolve emotional issues.  In fact, I’m betting that consumers who buy based solely on emotion rather than common sense will be the ones sobbing most when the credit card bill comes. (But the brands will be cheering!)

I give the same piece of advice almost every time my kids beg for the latest gadget, gizmo, or crappadoodle-doo that they’ve seen:

There’s only one reason that this company wants you to buy this thing… because they want your money. They don’t care if it’s good for you or if it’ll make you feel better. They just want your money.

Yes, I realize that’s over simplifying things.  But I want my kids to grow up knowing that their mom and dad actually care far more about them than any corporate brand.  And, frankly, I hope that our advice will always outshine that of a glossy billboard – no matter how alluring, or underhanded, their methods.

I tweet.  I facebook.  There… I admit it.  I am one of those. I also admit that both of these digital pastimes can become major time hogs in the life of a parent.  Not only because they foster an addiction (that non-tweeters cannot possibly understand), but the very nature of social media encourages users, like me, to fill those quiet snippets of time that pop up every day with status updates and scrolls through witticisms, links, and gripes by others.  Snippets of time that – in the olden days – would be spent in contemplation, reading (real paper), or watching your kid miss his second grounder in T-Ball.

How much of our lives are we, as parents, sacrificing for our digital updates?  For me, I’d say it’s not an insignificant amount. In fact, “Just a minute” has got to be among my children’s most-oft heard phrases to spew from my mouth, not too far behind “We have to go now!” and “Where are your shoes?”

Like our kids, we parents need to incorporate screen-free habits into our lives. Owning a smart phone makes this almost impossible as we grow evermore reliant on our funky apps and seem disturbingly curious about other people’s mundane lives.  Yet, taking a couple of hours out of every day to set the phone aside and leave the computer idle (maybe even OFF?)  forces a parent to be completely present to the family’s needs.  It also creates opportunity during the snippets of free time, when the dinner is simmering and the kids are busy, to do something other than reach for the phone.  Heck, you may decide join the kids for a while or sit at the piano and play a tune (no matter how bad it sounds). Maybe you’ll just sit in a chair and do absolutely nothing.  And if your son or daughter pops into the room to chitchat, you will not respond with “Just a minute.”  Sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it?

When the country’s most prominent newspaper headlines a story about kids playing outside (or their lack of it), you know something is amiss. This is what constitutes news? Apparently, so. There is even a celebratory reference to a young girl who actually (gasp) climbs trees!  The Globe and Mail article delves into some pretty dismal statistics lamenting the pathetically low amount of exercise that Canadian kids engage in.  Parents clearly need to take action.

Lack of activity isn’t a problem in my household where my only chance at obtaining any semblance of peace is to lock my three boys outside for long periods of time. However, I realize that not all parents are willing to kick their kids out the door without a lengthy negotiation period with the young’uns where they try to explain the benefits of fresh air and exercise. (Something to do with children’s rights and a desire to take their feelings into account.)

So, here I offer a quick tip to end all wasted efforts in such negotiation that will likely end in stalemate anyways. Set a general rule that every minute your child spends on his rear end in front a screen must be matched with time spent outside. Yes, they may complain of agonizing boredom five minutes after they’ve stepped out the door. I admit that is hard to take as a parent (not because we’re so sympathetic, but because it’s annoying as hell). It may require you to take pro-active measures, such as calling a friend to come over once in a while or offering to take them to a park. You can also take another page from my parenting handbook and offer any number of yard chores for your kids to complete if they can’t figure something out for themselves (they’ll stop griping pretty quick).

I realize this tip may not jibe with some parents, as it requires an ability to withstand copious amounts of complaining… particularly when such a rule is first implemented.  Take some solace in knowing that their outdoor time can be replaced with time spent in organized sports, as well.  The key, here, is to make sure that your kids are learning the importance of balancing sedentary time with active time. If kids don’t build these habits into their lifestyles now, they most certainly won’t do it when they’re grown-ups and busier than ever.  And besides all that… playing outside is, um, playing, after all.  I’m sure all parents can agree, we don’t want our children to be in such dire straits that the next thing we need to teach them is HOW to play.  Do we? 

Do you remember when email first arrived on the internet scene? I know… It seems like a hundred years ago. Back in those pioneer days of the web, there was no shortage of people claiming they would never use that newfangled electronic mail. Why type a message when a perfectly good phone was so much easier?  Of course, as the world’s population migrated to the newest form of chitchat (and parents realized they were out of the loop of their grownup kids’ lives without it), the waves of naysayers dissipated.  Know anyone who doesn’t use email?

Social networking is not unlike the email revolution. Facebook is leading the charge as the newest form of online information sharing with an estimated 700 million users.  While another social sharing site may one day take its place, suffice to say that old fashioned email is losing some ground.

Whether the youngest members of the family have yet to join a social network or not, parents should brace themselves for the inevitable moment when the kids take their social life to the web. Or, more aptly – broadcast it to, uh, the world. With a minimum age of 13 years to join, Mom and Dad cannot expect the kids will ask permission to join once they hit their tweens.  It will happen. Best to become familiar with how it all works, then. Right?

“But I don’t care about finding all my old high school friends,” is what I hear from so many parents who are reluctant to join. That, I always tell them, is not worth worrying about.  Most of those keeners looking to reunite with old acquaintances have given up the search.  Facebook is more about staying connected with those who matter most -either in business, family, or community.  Kids are no exception.  They are joining the network in droves (often before turning 13 years old) – eager to keep up with their friends’ lives during those few hours when they’re not at school together.  The upside to this is your phone is always available!

Unfortunately, since any person with a Facebook page can “friend” your child, the number of people viewing his or her personal information could quickly multiply into the hundreds.  Unless you, as a parent, are comfortable with the possibility that your kid is over-sharing with some 30-year-old dude from Alabama who happens to love Black Ops as much as he does, it’s a good idea to know how the most popular social network works.  That means joining, yourself.

A general rule of thumb to follow is: the younger the child, the more involved the parent needs to be on his or her Facebook page.  Parents should absolutely “friend” their kids if they are below the minimum age limit.  That helps police any inappropriate postings on his or her wall, as well as ensures those “friends” are authentic buddies, not the dude from Alabama.  I’d personally recommend “friending” your child regardless of his or her age, but that’s something that each family needs to figure out on their own.

When my girlfriend checked out her 11-year-old daughter’s Facebook page recently, she noticed her daughter’s best friend had posted a highly sexual lyric from a Rihanna song on her wall.  Because my girlfriend has established rules around her daughter’s use of the network (including she cannot friend anyone without her mother’s permission), she was able to view this and hence, contact the girl’s father.  He had the post removed.  These kinds of things happen on Facebook.  Better to be aware of it and deal with it… then not know about it at all.

Lastly, if while reading this blog post you wonder ‘what does she mean by wall, or post, or friending?’ then take that as a huge hint that you need to join.  It’s the new lingo and if you want to be part of that conversation with your kids, you’d best get on board… Remember, you can always ignore friend requests from your old high school acquaintances.  But it’s  not such a great idea to ignore an important new part of your kids’ social life.  I can’t promise it’ll make your kids think you’re hip, but at least they’ll have a tougher time pulling the wool over your eyes.

Gone are the days when you settle comfortably into a seat in the movie theatre, toss handfuls of butter-laden popcorn into your mouth, and sadly realize fifteen minutes into the movie that it is not what you expected.  Thanks to the internet, parents now have at their fingertips abundant reviews for every movie ever made.

The obvious perk to doing one’s homework before purchasing the ticket is that it considerably reduces one’s risk of sitting through a horrible movie.  (It certainly would have saved me from seeing Problem Child 2 back in 1991.)  Heck, if I’m going to spend all that money for a night out, as well as pack on a few pounds in my efforts to support the concession business, I better like that movie!

There are, however, other benefits to reviewing the silver screen offerings before venturing out, especially if the kids are coming along.  While the ratings are helpful, they aren’t always the most useful for parents seeking a movie that is suitable to kids ranging in age from say, six to eleven (like mine).

Although from the outset, the only difference between PG and PG-13 seems to be two rather insignificant numbers, the amount of violence, sexual innuendo, and fowl language can be huge.  For example: Kung Fu Panda 2 is PG and Green Lantern is PG-13.  A quick review of the former tells me that this  is a perfect family flick.  I considered taking the kids to Green Lantern.  I have three boys, after all, who love super heroes, action, guns (yes, it is true – but the ones they play with are fake and usually filled with water).  Yet, when I read that one character has a syringe plunged into his eye, I decided to take a pass on it.

I would probably let my eleven-year-old son see the movie, but I’m not even sure he’d appreciate that kind of imagery.  In fact, one of his friends who’d recently gone to see it claimed that the movie was good but a couple of scenes were disturbing.  Not surprisingly, he wasn’t too thrilled about that aspect.  I don’t blame him.  I still have the images of Freddie Kruger scraping the flesh off of a teenage girl as she crawls across her ceiling, thanks to my teen exposure to horror movies – it took me decades to get over that nasty one.  I’d prefer my kids’ minds remain clear of such morbid visuals for as long as possible.

The point is, parents need not wait until they’re seated before an Olympic-sized screen with blaring speakers to learn that a movie is too violent, too mature, too sexual, or just too bad for their kids’ eyes and ears.  Spending five to ten minutes surfing the internet for reviews to make an educated decision may very well save them from two hours of torturous viewing or worse, years of disturbing visuals branded on a child’s mind.

Best sites  for quick movie reviews:

CommonSenseMedia.org (also has a great app)

Rottentomatoes (Flixster)

In celebration of Father’s Day, which we celebrated yesterday, I thought it an opportune time to emphasize the importance of Dad’s input in the family screen dynamic. Too often, I’ve been quick to dismiss my own husband’s ideas around video games and TV viewing, assuming he’d give them free reign over the controllers if it were up to him (as long as it did not overlap with his football game). Yet I’ve discovered over the years that without his wholehearted supported for “my” rules, enforcing them also becomes “my” job. And alongside laundry, cooking, washing dishes, helping with homework (just a small list of things that are “my” job), I realized that I preferred not to add daily arguments with  kids over screen time to my personal duties.

Besides all that, Dads know a thing or two about screens. As with many households, my husband dedicates a portion of most weekends to lying on the couch watching sports. Is his habit really so bad?According to my husband: not so much. Since we have three sons, I’ve learned to defer to my husband’s knowledge on this issue and accept that time spent with the TV is a valued aspect of the today’s “guy” culture. Who am I to fight it?

Several years back, when my oldest son started begging for a Wii, I was firmly opposed. Allow my kids play video games all hours of the day? No way. They were going to be raised as piano-playing, outdoor-loving, homework-completing robots – I mean, kids. Welcoming a video game console into our home would destroy all my plans! My husband, however, wasn’t as keen on raising total nerds. Bit by bit, he’d sneak in arguments supporting a Wii purchase. My resolve weakened. Not just because I was tired of preaching from my soap box about the evils of video games, or because I was battling ever more feebly one against four (my three sons and husband), but I respected that my husband deserved as much say as I did about how our kids spent their free time. I finally succumbed and before wrapping it up to set under the Christmas tree, we agreed to support one another in the rules – which, it turns out, would take a couple years to iron out.

After much experimenting, my husband and I have formed a harmonious and united front in how and when our kids can use the screens in our home. Still, I have a more say in this simply because I am with them a lot more than their father. (Which is also why I vetoed his recent push to eliminate the Monday to Thursday video game ban. I love that rule!)  Now that we share a middle ground for our kids’ video gaming and TV habits, we can support one another’s efforts to ensure they follow the rules. And, that gives us less to argue about. Or, at the very least, allows more time to argue other issues, right honey?

Ever feel like it’s just too much effort to take off all those layers of clothing to try on a pair of jeans at a store?  Well, then this new shopping experience may be just what you’re looking for.

As crazy as this seems, I have to admit it would come in handy when I’m shopping from home on my laptop and wondering if that purple top with the ruffled neckline is really my style (probably not!)  On the other hand, will the screen be as honest as the mirror?  After all, it’s only after trying on that gorgeous floral summer dress that I realize my cleavage is on display, my hips pop out like lumps on each side, and the hem falls a little too high on my legs.  Even a tinted mirror can’t hide those defects, but a computer screen? I’m thinkin’, yep, it can.  Oh, evil screen.