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Roblox, family dinner, and the sex talk

Everything’s on the table today

Hey there! In case you missed it, last week we covered Zyn, the nicotine packets that your kids may or may not be using but definitely are talking about. Turns out, tons of parents were just as clueless as we were about these tiny, odorless, colorless pouches of trouble with a capital T. Want more info? We’ve got you—here’s a helpful guide we whipped up on all things Zyn…and how to talk to your kids about it.

Parents Are Suing Roblox for Online Exploitation

Source: Interent Matters

This is important if your kids play Roblox: Multiple families are suing the video game over allegations of exploiting kids online. They say that Roblox, which often brands itself as family-friendly, systematically fails to protect kids from inappropriate content and makes it all too easy for kids to spend (very real world) money in Roblox’s metaverse.

This could be big…mostly because Roblox is so big. It has 56 million daily users, with 60% of players under the age of 16 and 22% under the age of 9. And it can be dangerous: Earlier this month, an 11-year-old girl was kidnapped from her home by an adult man who she met through Roblox. 

Want to keep your kids safe on Roblox? Here’s a super useful guide to all things Roblox and how to make sure your kids don’t get hurt using it.

Teens and Cellphones…?

One of our friends in the Common Parent (our community for teen and tween parents to share questions and ideas) asked this earlier this week:

Some answers from other Common Parent members? Make your kids leave their phones in the kitchen overnight or use Google Family Link or another tech tool for managing kids’ phone use. And if you want a slightly longer read about the case for making stricter phone rules, this is really interesting (save it for the carpool line).

The Shows That Make Talking About Sex Suck Less

Every parent dreads it, but every parent has to do it at some point: Talk about sex with their teen or tween. So…why do it yourself if you could have TV characters do it for you? Or at least help you start a thoughtful conversation in a more natural way than your parents did. Because our kids need it! Did you know only 50% of teens report using condoms these days, down from 60% a decade ago?

So: These are the TV shows that pediatricians, social workers, and sex educators think are really useful in talking to teens about sex.

And if you need a little extra backup, we’ve got you covered with this episode about how to talk about sex with your teens—this one’s for Common Parent members. Sign up here if you haven’t yet.

The Case for Family Dinner

Source: Speech Matters

Hear us out: More dads at the dinner table (more dads cooking dinner, too, but that’s a conversation for another time). New research just in:

  • “Children of parents who expressed higher work-related stress when the children were 2 years old had lower socioemotional competency at age 4 to 5,” researchers from the University of Illinois said, meaning issues with things like communication, social interaction, and self-regulation.

  • They also found that dads missing family meals led to their kids having lower socioemotional competence at ages 4 and 5. And dads who felt unsatisfied with work and money skipped more family meals.

So the bottom line? It’s not always possible to sit down to a multiple-course family meal. Or a family meal at all. But taking the time to check in with your kids, even if it’s over toothbrushes & toothpaste instead of spaghetti & meatballs, makes an important difference. 

The perfect recs to get you through the long winter months when your kids are especially quick to whip out the old “we have nothing to eat in this house” line. Bonus points if Dad makes one or more of these—we all know you could use a break.

Next week is Thanksgiving in the States (look out for something fun from us!), which is the official kick off to what most parents consider to be the most stressful time of their year. There’s doing holiday shopping (and budgeting for holiday shopping), hosting family and friends, keeping up with busy social calendars, making holiday memories, attending holiday recitals, planning classroom parties…the list really does go on and on. 

Our hope this holiday season is that you get a chance to celebrate yourself—for all you do to raise your kids, nourish your family, and stay sane? You deserve a toast and then some. We’re clinking glasses from afar! 🥂

—Cat & Nat