When my youngest (who is 25 years old today) was 12 years old, he called me into the garage. He had been sorting the recycling. That was one of his incomes in addition to a paper route and walking dogs in the neighborhood. “Oh maaaa-ther!,” he called, in a very whimsical tone. He opened the garage door from the hall in our home, to reveal all of the recycling sorted, and in the very center were all of the empty wine bottles… and there were a lot of them. It is important to note here that I am the consumer of wine in our home. I usually have a glass at dinner and while preparing dinner. He smiled and suggested, “Let’s count them, shall we?”

One of the great temptations for the modern parent is to rely on gadgets to ease some of the time and attention demands of babies. A great example is a baby seat that sways in a way to mimic a human rocking a baby, and can be operated by remote control. As with all innovations, they can be used for good or not good, and so I decided to write a feature for my Sacramento Cyber Safety Examiner column below on the nature of gadgets for parents of babies, and some considerations for wise use.

So the big question remains: what role does cyber connectivity play in your family life? Does it promote deeper, more engaged conversations to build trustworthy relationships? Or does it isolate individuals in your home leaving children vulnerable to bullying and exploitation? Below are some signs that the cyber technology is managing you and disrupting family bonding experiences essential to build trust, which is what digital natives value more than money.