I’ve been a mom for over two decades now, and looking back to 1993 when I held my first newborn in my arms (my heart still beats fast just remembering that moment!), I can’t believe how much has changed in the world of parenting resources. I remember having access to some tried and true baby books, What to Expect the First Year, which was practically my new baby bible, and subscriptions to some reputable parenting magazines. But most of what I learned came from reaching out to my own mom for advice, leaning on my pediatrician and picking my friends’ brains who had become moms before me.
Since I was a young girl, reading has been one of my favorite pastimes and passions. I could lose myself in a book for hours on end, and still can, but as a very busy mom of eight kids, I also appreciate learning and being entertained in other ways. Thanks to the internet, I have access to hundreds and hundreds of helpful and interesting videos and other computer-related resources, yet, as primitive as it may sound, when I joined the prestigious ranks of motherhood, the internet and all its gifts had literally not been born yet.
Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent who is juggling home and family 24/7 or embedded full-time in the workforce, if we embrace the World Wide Web, we can definitely take our parenting skills to new heights. Mighty Mommy is a firm believer in taking advantage of any tools that can help enrich our parenting life and enthusiastically shares ten ways the internet can help make it better.
#1: Find Educational Sources
Find educational resources, (for yourself and your kids) including up-to-the minute news, copies of important documents and photos, and collections of research information on topics ranging from the latest in political races to interesting geography facts about your own town. One such place that houses hundreds of educational videos and articles is Big Think, an internet forum that features interviews, multimedia presentations, and roundtable discussions with speakers from a range of fields. Also check out a great collection of podcasts and columns by QDT's Everyday Einstein and The Math Dude
#2: Take Free Online Classes
I worked in a dental practice for nearly 20 years and one of the requirements to keep our licenses up-to-date was to take continuing education courses throughout the year. As a busy parent, it can be a challenge to find a way to leave your kids or job for a day to take a class, but thanks to the internet, we now have access to online parenting classes as well as a host of other topics that might interest you such as photography, writing, or gourmet cooking. A few of my favorite online classes resources are Khan Academy, which offers more than 3,000 videos on subjects ranging from SAT prep to event planning. Detailed courses are broken into smaller sections of text or videos for ease of learning that fits into your schedule, and all are self-paced so you can spend as much or as little time with the subject as you like, and another reason Khan is a great resource—it's free! Another inspiring favorite of mine are TED talks, which are a legendary source of information on all sorts of topics, and any discussion of how to educate yourself for free online needs to include watching them. There are now thousands of videos on all sorts of topics available on the site.
#3: Tune Into YouTube
One of my favorite “go to” places on the internet is YouTube. Launched in May 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe. You can find everything from teaching your child how to ride a bike, to learning how to artfully organize your homes bookcases by searching for it on YouTube. And one of YouTube’s informative parenting series shares all the ins and outs of caring for your newborn. Best part is, if you need to have something repeated a few times, you simply click on the stop button, rewind, and watch it all over again. See Also: 5 Tips for Bringing Newborn Baby Home
#4: Listen to Podcasts
As the host of the Quick and Dirty tips Mighty Mommy podcast, I would be totally remiss if I didn’t give an enthusiastic endorsement of how valuable podcasts can be in relation to our multi-faceted lives. There are literally podcasts on every topic from A to Z, and with the help of your favorite search engine, all you have to do is type in the topic you’re interested in, such as parenting podcasts or money management, and you’ll instantly have dozens of fresh, informative choices available. For a fun and informative history podcast, check out Unknown History with host and best -selling author, Giles Milton, where you'll learn some surprising, quirky and remarkable tales from the past.
#5: Makes Meal Times Easier
There's a lot to be gained by planning your meals. You eat better, healthier food, do more cooking for yourself and put more thought into what you eat, try new recipes, and save at the grocery store at the same time. When it comes to raising a family, one of the hardest jobs is trying to come up with solutions for dinner every night—let alone trying to find the time to cook!
Because of our super busy lives, serving our families home cooked meals may seem impossible but with all the meal planning tools the internet has to offer, food shopping and meal preparation has now become a piece of cake.
Websites such as familytime.com where you can search over 10,000 family-friendly ideas as well as save your top picks in your own virtual recipe box. Another Mighty Mommy favorite is Cook Smarts, an on-line meal planning service. The site's blog and newsletter are free, but to make use of their meal planning tools, you'll have to sign up for an account. You can get three sample plans for free, but the service will really cost you $6/mo. I really believe it’s one of the simplest on-line meal planning services where you'll get four new recipes every week along with ingredients, a downloadable and printable grocery list, and even step-by-step instructions and cooking videos to help you make everything. For more inspiration on cooking up delicious meals, check out The Clever Cookstr.
#6: Get Homework Help
Have you seen your 6th grader’s math homework lately? How about your 3rd grader’s common core science? I don’t know about you, but when any of my kids in Middle School and beyond have a homework crisis and need some assistance, I feel like a fish out of water. I may have been a good student “back in the day” but the bottom line is that the homework assignments our kids come home with now can be very intimidating to even the smartest adults. Thanks to the many internet homework resources, you’ll feel like you have a private 1:1 tutor in your midst. Four sites we use in our home are:
The Inclusive Class, which lists ten websites that can help with you manage your child's homework
#7: Saves You Time
Take advantage of all the online time savers available to you. You can save a significant amount of time by paying your bills online, taking advantage of on-line banking, comparison shopping on-line, scheduling your calendar with family and work appointments, researching nearly any subject you can imagine without leaving your home, communicating with emails, Skype, and Google chats, and even telecommuting is possible because the internet age has completely redefined how we work. The ability to sit in your home office while connecting to all of the same resources as if you were in your work office is a reality in today’s workplace.
#8: Keeps You Connected
Snail mail? What’s that?
In the 1980s, AT&T urged people—metaphorically—to ‘reach out and touch someone’ with their telephone service. With today’s high speed internet services, we are certainly staying connected on a very personal basis. Between all the social media conduits such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, the internet can definitely keep us practically at arms-length with our kids who are away at college, our grandkids, traveling spouses and friends and family all over the world. Snail mail? What’s that?
#9: Fosters Your Creativity
While the internet is a tremendous resource in helping us stay abreast of current educational, political and even self-help issues, it is also a valuable channel in allowing us to foster our creative side. Pinterest, for example, is a social network that allows users to visually share, and discover new interests by posting (known as 'pinning' on Pinterest) images or videos to their own or others' boards usually with a common theme, and browsing what other users have pinned. Other creative on-line avenues are creating a personal blog, embellishing personal photos with Photo shop, assembling precious memories using on-line scrapbooking, and even designing your dream kitchen or master bath using virtual design tools. With all of these creative items, there’s no such thing as a boring, rainy afternoon.
#10: Keeps You Organized
Last, but not least, the internet can help you streamline the order of your home. At the touch of your keyboard you can find dozens of suggestions, tips and articles to help you declutter and keep your home life running smoothly. If you want ideas for revamping your child’s playroom, all you need to do is use specific keywords and with the lightning fast search engines we have, you’ll get tons of suggestions on how to tackle your playroom. Here’s one of my favorite organizing articles on line, 50+ Useful Organizing Tips for a Squeaky Clean House! Without the internet, I doubt I’d have ever found suggestion #6 –Baby Boxes which shows a simple and cool way to organize my kid’s documents, school papers and even their super cute artwork or the cool cell phone holders which save my large family their sanity and their phones because now we have a fun and pretty way to keep them safe and charge them.
For more ideas on how to keep your home organized and looking it’s best check out The Domestic CEO as well as Get it Done Guy.
How does the internet benefit your family’s lifestyle? Share your thoughts in the Comments section at quickanddirtytips.com/mighty-mommy, post your ideas on the Mighty Mommy Facebook page, or email me at mommy@quickanddirtytips.com.
Also visit my family-friendly boards at Pinterest.com/MightyMommyQDT.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.