There Is No App for Good Parenting
Daily life is so much easier than it was 100 years ago. Back then each day of the week was devoted to a single household task. The general chore for Mondays was washing the family’s clothes and it took the entire day. The homemaker would heat a tub of water, add soap shavings and boil the clothes for 10 minutes. Then the clothes were scrubbed on a ribbed washboard and finally put into a fresh water rinse.
Today we have automatic washing machines as well as dishwashers and electric toothbrushes. We even have apps, at least 500,000 can be found at the App Store for everything from weather updates to baby pregnancy trackers. A quick click can connect you to an iBaby Feed Timer or a White Noise Baby application conveniently sandwiched in between the Barbie Girl Makeup Workshop and How to Cook Everything apps. Perhaps these are somewhat helpful additions to the challenges of parenting in the ‘10s.
Yet, here’s one thing any veteran parent can tell you. No matter what tricks you have up your sleeve, whether it’s an educational video or the latest and greatest app – parenting, or rather good parenting, takes a lot more than fancy, trendy bells and whistles.
As a parent your children are watching everything you do. Talk on your iPhone non-stop instead of spending time speaking with your children and in a few years you’ll get the same treatment. Well, the teen years might trigger that behavior no matter what, but the point is it will be a phase and somewhere deep inside will be a child that really knows better.
A good parent distributes love generously and consistently. There is no app for this. Love isn’t the giving of things. It’s so much more. It takes caring and being involved in your child’s life, it means establishing and setting rules, providing emotional support as well as physical nourishment. It requires consistency, thoughtfulness and on-going education.
That’s where we enter the picture. We’re here to help you be the best parent imaginable. This month, whether it’s helping you choose the right holiday gift, (see our NAPPA gift guide on page 18) or inspiring you and your family to help feed hungry children in our county, (see “Feeding the Hungry” on page 28), or finding fun and adventurous outings that make family time the best it can be, (see our complete calendar of events on page 41), we hope to help you make parenting a positive adventure, one that will nourish you and your youngsters.
And while we don’t have an app for our offerings, we do have a complete digital edition available anytime of the day or night at westchesterfamily.com. See you there!
Enjoy the Holidays,
Jean Sheff
Editor
