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52 unforgettable activities you can do with your kids this weekend
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This list of simple ideas will transform your weekends into memories. - photo by Melinda Fox
You've finally reached the weekend, and everyone is scattered around the house doing who knows what; and honestly, it's a challenge to put effort into thinking of anything more exciting to do than curling up with some Netflix. It's easy to let months of weekends pass this way, letting valuable family bonding time escape without a second glance. But having an exceptional weekend doesn't have to be a challenge.

Here's a list of unique activities that you can do with things you probably already have at home:

1. Have a lip sync battle

2. Spend the night in another decade with appropriate clothes, music and activities

3. Make pizzas that look like each other's faces

4. Have a cupcake war by seeing who can make the best cupcakes with a weird ingredient

5. Make a chalk mural as long as your entire street

6. Doorbell ditch cookies

7. Go camping in the backyard

8. Have a pie eating contest

9. Dress up in shawls and wigs to play Bingo

10. Paint portraits of each other

11. Write letters to family members

12. Pretend the power is out

13. Look up scripts to movies or plays on the Internet and act them out

14. Have a family Olympics with all the events (for example, create a figure skating routine minus the ice)

15. Dress up in fancy clothes and have a cheese and chocolate tasting

16. Celebrate your favorite holiday at the wrong time of year

17. Pretend you are vacationing in a foreign country

18. Build an obstacle course throughout the house

19. Make up your own ice cream flavor and eat it

20. Do a service scavenger hunt by breaking into teams and seeing how many people you can serve in an hour

21. Have a family sleepover

22. Visit a nursing home

23. Check out library books, and read all of them

24. Have a dance party

25. Eat breakfast in bed

26. Turn a movie on mute and act it out, finding props from what you have in the room

27. Make up your own card game

28. Build a fort

29. Have a spa night with massages, facials and yoga

30. Have a Nerf gun war

31. Make a collage from pictures cut from magazines

32. Build a sandcastle or a snow castle

33. Write thank you notes for cashiers, the mail carrier, etc. and hand them out

34. Make a movie

35. Skype a relative

36. Have a tower building contest

37. Look at family photos

38. Be a tourist in your own town

39. Go to a restraunt just to order dessert

40. Have a family talent show

41. Go on a scavenger hunt

42. Let the kids be the parents for the night

43. Go on a walk

44. Try cooking a meal from another country

45. Pick an actor, genre or series and have a movie marathon

46. Go stargazing

47. Listen to an audiobook together

48. Start a garden

49. Learn a new skill, like juggling or throat singing from youtube

50. Sing songs and roast things around a campfire

51. Find out today's National holidays and celebrate them

52. Make a music video
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How to avoid 'sharenting' and other paparazzi parenting habits
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A recent study revealed parents often spend up to two hours staging a single photo of his or her child to post online. - photo by Amy Iverson
Before having kids, some people just dont appreciate their friends baby posts. But after having a child of their own, three fourths of new parents jump right on the parental social media bandwagon. If you have become a member of this group, there are some rules to follow for posting responsibly.

Much of a parents worry is how to teach their children to use social media responsibly. We talk with our kids about privacy, oversharing, and setting restrictions on their devices to keep them safe. But parents themselves need to look in the digital mirror once in a while. Before having children, it doesnt take as much effort to think about what to post online. Its up to us to decide what we share about our own lives. But once you become a parent, there are many questions to think about regarding what is appropriate to post about your kids on social media.

In a recent survey, kids clothing subscription company Mac and Mia surveyed 2000 new parents to find out how they are documenting their kids lives on social media, and what concerns they may have.

First of all, people without children seem to feel a bit differently about the onslaught of baby pictures online than those who are parents. 18 percent of people say before they had kids, they were annoyed by their friends baby posts. But after having children of their own, 73 percent admit they post progress pictures of their little ones every single month.

Not only are new parents letting the world know each time their baby is a month older, but they are posting about their kids every few days or so. Men and women report they post 6-7 times per month about their baby.

And while 70 percent of new parents say the benefit of using social media is how easy it is to help family and friends feel involved, there are some downsides. Here are a few tips to avoid the pitfall of becoming paparazzi parents.

Dont miss the moment

In the Mac and Mia survey, some parents admitted to spending up to two hours to get the perfect shot of their baby. That seems a little extreme. New and old parents alike should be careful about spending so much time taking pictures and videos that they dont enjoy the moment. Years ago, I decided to never live an experience through my phone. A study by Linda Henkel, a psychology professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut, found that when people took pictures of objects in an art museum, they didnt remember the objects as well as if they simply observed them.

This photo-taking impairment effect can happen to parents as well. If we are so consumed by getting the perfect photo, we can miss out on the moment all together, and our memory of it will suffer.

Dont forget about privacy

60 percent of couples say they have discussed rules and boundaries for posting their babys photos, according to the Mac and Mia survey. Even so, men are 34 percent more likely to publish baby posts on public accounts. If parents are concerned about their childrens privacy, keeping photos off of public accounts is a given.

In the Washington Post, Stacey Steinberg, a legal skills professor at the University of Florida, and Bahareh Keith, a Portland pediatrician, wrote that sharing too much information about kids online puts them at risk. They write that all that sharenting can make it easier for data thieves to target out kids for identity theft. Check that your privacy settings are where they should be and never share identifying information like full names and birth dates.

Dont be paparazzi parents

36 percent of parents say they take issue when their childs photo is posted online by someone else. Responsible social media users will always ask permission before posting a photo of another child. But parents should also think about whether their own children will take issue with their own posted photos a few years down the road.

When parents are constantly snapping pictures and throwing them on social media, it can be easy to forget to pause and make sure the post is appropriate. I always use the billboard example with my kids. I ask them to picture whatever they are posting going up on a billboard in our neighborhood. If they are okay with that, then their post is probably fine. Parents should ask themselves this same question when posting about their children. But they should also ask themselves if their child would be OK with this post on a billboard in 15 years. If it would cause embarrassment or humiliation, it might be best to keep it private.

Once children reach an appropriate age, parents should include them in the process of deciding what pictures are OK to post. Researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed 10- to 17-year-olds and found children believe their parents should ask permission more than parents think they should. The kids in the survey said sharing happy family moments, or accomplishments in sports, school and hobbies is fine. But when the post is negative (like when a child is disciplined) or embarrassing (think naked baby pictures or messy hair), kids say to keep it off social media.
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