February 04, 2022
top trending topics
👂 Listen up #girldads! Here’s how you can connect & make memories with your daughter this Valentine’s Day.
🚦 The “terrible” twos won’t last forever. Use this as a magical time!
🤔 Wondering if your child is a good friend or if they have good friends? Look no further.
💛 Get all you need to know about emotional safety.
🎊 Here’s why you should celebrate all kinds of milestones. It can have a big impact!
tips & tricks for growth
set your family on a path to better relationships with screen time
Have you paused lately to look around at our technological world? From smart home devices to self-driving cars, it’s a lot to take in. And then, we have to guide our children on how to engage with all this – and talk about screen time. It’s overwhelming to hear all the different voices, from professionals to friends, telling us how our kids should use technology.
Screen time isn’t wrong in and of itself. It’s all about how you use it. There are many benefits to co-viewing with younger children and using technology to promote learning and conversation.
Recommended screen time limits per the American Academy of Pediatrics:
📱Birth to 18 months: No screens, except for video chats with family and friends.
📱18 months to 2 years: Limit screen time and view with your child. Introduce high-quality educational programming.
📱2-5 years: Limit screen time to an hour a day (outside of academics) and watch together, if possible.
📱6-12 years: Place consistent limits on screen time as determined by the family. Ensure that screen time doesn’t impact your child’s sleep, exercise, or behavior.
Your child is going to use screens. It’s how they connect with the world. Do your best to help guide how they use screen time in a healthy way. These general guidelines can help you navigate technology use in your home.
here’s how you can tell if someone is trustworthy
Oddly enough, you are going to have to trust me on this. You don’t know me. At the end of this, you are going to have to decide if this is trustworthy advice from a trustworthy source.
This is probably a good place for a disclaimer or three:
- Trust is a two-way street. Sometimes we withhold trust from people that are trustworthy. We may have gotten burned by someone close to us. We may be having trust issues because the world has gotten crazy and we are anxious and stressed out and feel overwhelmed by the constant bombardment of opinions and information. Or, we may have trust issues to work through on our end for a variety of totally legitimate reasons. Make sure you are doing the work on your end.
- Trust exists on a sliding scale. Trust is less like a light switch and more like a thermostat—we can turn it up as we develop trust with someone or turn it down if we see someone showing signs of not being trustworthy. Sometimes we don’t have enough history with someone to really decide if they are trustworthy and we have to go with a gut feeling about them. Only you know the track record of your “gut feelings.”
- Trust can be regained. We have all violated someone’s trust at some point. I know I have. I’ve been grateful that they didn’t write me off as “untrustworthy” forever and ever but gave me opportunities to regain their trust. Sometimes it has taken a period of time and understandably so. Leave others the room you want to be human and make mistakes. That said, there are pathologically untrustworthy people. Note it and act accordingly.
There are things you can be on the lookout for when it comes to trustworthiness. And you should be on the lookout. Trust is the bedrock of our relationships, but trust is also a fragile thing.
what we’re lovin’
This week’s picks come from Gena Ellis, wife to her college sweetheart, mother of 3 boys, and a Relationship Coach here at First Things First! Take a peek at her recommendations for this week because they are just THAT GOOD. Check ’em out 👀:
😂 Culture Tags– Is a fun game that my husband and I played with a couple of friends. We laughed and enjoyed ourselves playing this game! There are additional bundles that you can add to the original game as well.
📲 @Iamdevale on Instagram– Devale Ellis is a former professional football player and now an actor. He shares stories of his family including his wife and sons. He and his wife Khadeen host this podcast as well.
💛 Black Love– Is a spectacular website that depicts all aspects of black love from parent-child, between spouses, learning to love and become your best self and how to enjoy the single life. It also houses the stories that were shared on the television show, Black Love on OWN.
share the love
Know a friend who would love reading all the relationship goodness we’ve packed in here? Go ahead and share it with them!