Media Savvy Moms

Kids will explore their bodies. It’s natural. Should we talk about masturbation with them? If so, when? Most parents just don’t know how to begin. But ignoring the topic won’t help our children. As parents, it’s our job to help our kids make sense of even the trickiest topics, including masturbation and the danger of pairing it with pornography.  This episode is part of our #DearSavvy series. Sometimes you just want a quick answer to a burning question. These shorter episodes are designed to give you just that. Tune in to the podcast to hear the whole scoop, and check out the show notes for helpful tools and information. If you’d like to submit a question, click here to Contact Us.  Media Savvy Moms is a podcast by ParentsAware, an organization dedicated to helping parents talk to kids and teens about pornography and healthy sexuality. For complete show notes, visit http://parentsaware.info/index.php/podcast/.

Are the porn talk and the sex talk related? They should be! It’s time to consider how media and porn culture are affecting our kids’ sexual development. But first we have to see our kids as sexual beings. Say what? How in the world do we get there?  WARNING: This episode contains brief descriptions of sexually graphic content. You’ve heard us say it a million times, but now we have a developmental psychologist and sex educator on the show to back us up: protecting our kids from pornography all comes back to the sex talk! Actually, ongoing sex talks (plural), as we like to say around here. In this week’s episode, Dr. Megan Maas joins us for a straightforward, no-holds-barred chat about educating our kids about healthy sexuality, pornography, and pleasure. And most importantly, recognizing and respecting them as sexual beings, which she admits, isn’t the easiest thing in the world for parents to do. However, it’s a must. After all, “at the end of the day, we want our kids to have healthy, satisfying sex—not da

Parents everywhere are mourning the loss of “the most wonderful time of the year”—that sweet spot when our lives  return to a predictable routine. (Or so we like to tell ourselves!) With COVID-19, the return to school looks different. Thousands of families have started out the year in virtual school—at home. As the weeks go on, they’re discovering that it’s anything but normal. It doesn’t seem to matter if we’ve got one child at home or multiple children, the consensus is the same. Virtual school is tough—mentally, physically, and emotionally—on everyone! Let’s face it, school is more than just learning ABCs and 123s. It’s about social interaction, movement, collaboration, school spirit, and more. And it feels impossible to simulate that experience sitting at a desk, at home, connecting through a screen. Parents are understandably anxious. Never before has it been mandated that kids spend this much time in front of screens for learning. In fact, there are compelling arguments to say that less time with screen

Can you believe it? We’re back to school and STILL stuck in this crazy pandemic. And like it or not, many kids are doing virtual school, at least part time. Some are 100% virtual. Are you panicking? Are you wondering … Is virtual school a safe environment for my kids? This episode is part of our #DearSavvy series. Sometimes you just want a quick answer to a burning question. These shorter episodes are designed to give you just that. Tune in to the podcast to hear the whole scoop, and check out the show notes for helpful tools and information. If you’d like to submit a question, click here to Contact Us.  Media Savvy Moms is a podcast by ParentsAware, an organization dedicated to helping parents talk to kids and teens about pornography and healthy sexuality. For complete show notes, visit http://parentsaware.info/index.php/podcast/.

Does it feel like you need a degree in computer science just to keep up with your kids online? Do you hyperventilate everytime you think about their digital safety and what you might be missing? Well, what if there was an EASY way to make sense of routers, filters and parental controls? Would you want that? … Absolutely! As is the case with so many things, digital safety is not as much about what you know as it is about WHO you know. And … do we know a guy! His name is Chris McKenna, founder of Protect Young Eyes, an organization dedicated to providing the best internet safety information for families. If you have a question about any tech device or app, chances are Chris and his team have already tested it dozens of times (like a curious kid) and have the answers you're looking for.  Chris’ calendar is typically booked solid. So when he agreed to come on the show we literally jumped for joy! Not only does Chris know tech inside and out, but he’s able to communicate his knowledge in a way that every parent c

How much screen time is healthy? Ask extended family, friends, or the people next door, and chances are, recommendations will be all over the place. But what do the experts say? And what about COVID-19 and social isolation—when all our best-laid plans are falling to pieces?! Let’s talk about it! This episode is part of our #DearSavvy series. Sometimes you just want a quick answer to a burning question. These shorter episodes are designed to give you just that. Tune in to the podcast to hear the whole scoop, and check out the show notes for helpful tools and information. If you’d like to submit a question, click here to Contact Us.  Media Savvy Moms is a podcast by ParentsAware, an organization dedicated to helping parents talk to kids and teens about pornography and healthy sexuality. For complete show notes, visit http://parentsaware.info/index.php/podcast/.

We have a porn problem. To fix it we need to get it out in the open. Yes, we’re getting better at acknowledging that porn targets kids. But we still talk in generalities. Like it’s something that's out there. When in reality it’s in here. It’s in our homes. It’s part of our kids’ lives. And to help them we need to start talking to other parents about our real worries and concerns. Wait! What? You’re suggesting I tell someone if my child can’t stop looking at porn? Won’t that embarrass them or expose me to harsh criticism? Ok. We’re not suggesting you tell just anyone and everyone. But if your child is struggling with porn, there are good reasons to seek support outside your immediate family. To learn more, listen to this week’s podcast. It’s actually an archived conversation between our founder Marilyn and her sister Val. They each open up about their own experiences with kids and porn. And why telling someone else was one of the best things they did to help their kids on a path to healing and recovery. More

Kids are curious. And that’s important. They learn and grow by exploring the world around them. But it can terrify us too. What if their curiosity leads to danger? So we give warnings and have protective conversations. We guide and direct them toward safe, healthy choices. And in our media-saturated world, that also means talking about porn and why it’s harmful. This episode is part of our #DearSavvy series. Sometimes you just want a quick answer to a burning question. These shorter episodes are designed to give you just that. Tune in to the podcast to hear the whole scoop, and check out the show notes for helpful tools and information. If you’d like to submit a question, click here to Contact Us.  Media Savvy Moms is a podcast by ParentsAware, an organization dedicated to helping parents talk to kids and teens about pornography and healthy sexuality. For complete show notes, visit http://parentsaware.info/index.php/podcast/.

What if my spouse is addicted to porn? Do I have a choice? What can I do to protect myself? Will his addiction impact our children? What can I do to protect them? Is it even possible to have marriage free from porn? How can I fight for love? How can I fight for my family?  To answer these questions, we’ve invited author and women’s support coach Rosie Makinney to join us this week. Her mission is to help women understand what works and what doesn’t in terms of getting porn out of marriage. We love her because she’s able to infuse this difficult conversation with brightness and hope. Her book, Fight for Love: How to Take Your Marriage Back from Porn, is a gem and recommended reading for wives everywhere. Rosie’s outlook has been shaped by two vastly different porn-invaded relationships. She knows firsthand the futility and pain of competing against porn for love. But she also knows what it’s like to have a spouse who’s overcome addiction and together they’ve discovered more in marriage than they ever thought

Kids are hilarious, sweet, funny, joyful and INNOCENT! But growing up in a media-saturated world is tough business. There’s a lot that can threaten childhood innocence. Parents worry and wonder what is the best way to shelter kids. What if we looked at the issue differently? This episode is part of our #DearSavvy series. Sometimes you just want a quick answer to a burning question. These shorter episodes are designed to give you just that. Tune in to the podcast to hear the whole scoop, and check out the show notes for helpful tools and information. If you’d like to submit a question, click here to Contact Us. Media Savvy Moms is a podcast by ParentsAware, an organization dedicated to helping parents talk to kids and teens about pornography and healthy sexuality. For complete show notes, visit http://parentsaware.info/index.php/podcast/.

Whose fight is this? You know us. We are moms—media savvy moms. We’re concerned about kids, family, and relationships. But ours is not the only voice needed. Nor is it the only voice being heard. We stand alongside amazing dads. Dads who have a vision for a world without exploitation. It’s this gentle strength of dads to fight porn that will help change the world.  Love is the antidote to porn. We know this. And it takes both dads and moms to model what real love looks like for kids. Simply, there are things kids learn from dads, and other significant men in their lives, they can’t learn from moms. Most importantly: how men treat women, and how to be a great dad mentor. Moms can teach this. But dads show it.  Josh Gilman joins us on the show this week. He is the director of Strength to Fight, an organization based in Ottawa, Canada fighting for a porn-free community. They get their message out through dynamic presentations in schools, churches and special events. But at the root of it, Josh is in this fight

There’s no question. In our media saturated world, our kids will be exposed to porn at some point. But what’s the right age to start talking about it? This episode is part of our #DearSavvy series. Sometimes you just want a quick answer to a burning question. These shorter episodes are designed to give you just that. Tune in to the podcast to hear the whole scoop, and check out the show notes for helpful tools and information. If you’d like to submit a question, click here to Contact Us.  Media Savvy Moms is a podcast by ParentsAware, an organization dedicated to helping parents talk to kids and teens about pornography and healthy sexuality. For complete show notes, visit http://parentsaware.info/index.php/podcast/.

What do you do when you’ve been taught one thing and your day-to-day experience is completely different? Things don’t add up. You question everything but have nowhere to go for answers. You start to believe that there’s no one else like you. How can I be a girl and like pornography? How can I be a woman and be addicted? Where do I place all this shame?  Jessica Harris first stumbled upon pornography at age 13. It didn’t take long for curiosity to turn to compulsion. Hours upon hours were spent consuming porn and entering chat rooms on her home computer (dial-up modem). By the time she graduated high school it felt like an addiction. She was scared and she wanted out. But it wasn’t happening. She had tried and failed multiple times on her own. Two defining, yet completely opposite, experiences in college opened her eyes to the plight of girls and women. She was not alone! Despite what society tells girls, they do have a sex drive, they can become trapped by pornography, and there is such a thing as female add

Just when we thought we had online safety figured out … time for a playdate! When our kids are away, will they still be safe? How do we bring up our concerns about online safety and playdates with the other parents?  This episode is part of our #DearSavvy series. Sometimes you just want a quick answer to a burning question. These shorter episodes are designed to give you just that. Tune in to the podcast to hear the whole scoop, and check out the show notes for helpful tools and information. If you’d like to submit a question, click here to Contact Us.  Media Savvy Moms is a podcast by ParentsAware, an organization dedicated to helping parents talk to kids and teens about pornography and healthy sexuality. For complete show notes, visit http://parentsaware.info/index.php/podcast/.

What do teens really want parents to know about pornography and growing up in a media saturated world? Sure, we can talk about how to connect with our teens. We might even turn to researched-based theories to refine our parenting skills. But teens are tricky. And despite our best efforts, we’re often left scratching our heads wondering if we’re on the right track.    Ahhh, wouldn’t it be great if we could read their minds? We’d know exactly what to say and when. Maybe then we could avoid awkward moments, scathing eyerolls, bursts of anger, or tears of misunderstanding. (Not to mention their reactions!!—LOL)   Alas, telepathy is not our game plan. We opted instead to speak with Creed Orme, co-host of Breaking the Silence, a podcast by Reach 10. Creed is 26 years old. So, not so far removed from teen life. Plus, he’s got sound advice for parents of teens who struggle with addiction to pornography—because he’s been there himself. More about today’s guest Media Savvy Moms is a podcast by ParentsAware, an organi

We know racism in the media is a tricky topic. But that’s what we do here at Media Savvy Moms. Honest conversations in a media saturated world? That’s our jam. Hang on, parents. You got this. This episode is part of our #DearSavvy series. Sometimes you just want a quick answer to a burning question. These shorter episodes are designed to do just that. Tune in to the podcast to hear the whole scoop, and check out the show notes for helpful tools and information. If you’d like to submit a question, click here to Contact Us.  Dear Savvy: There is so much about racism in the media, especially right now with all the violence and riots around the U.S. My son approached me the other day and wanted to know what it’s all about. Do you have any advice for talking to my kids about this touchy subject? Dear Listener,  Whether we are black, brown, white, or any combination of colors, it's time for our families to hit the subject of racism head-on. And although racism in the media and current events might feel scary or in

Pornography is like a drug. It draws in consumers and hooks them. Many say they’ve tried to quit over and over. But progress can feel almost imperceptible. It’s easy to get discouraged and want to give in. Those who succeed learn that victory is about preparing for the long game. It takes endurance to overcome pornography.  In this episode we sit down with Garrett Jonsson. He’s a father, a fighter, and an endurance enthusiast. He shares with us what it takes to overcome pornography. Not just personally, but also as a dad fighting for his family and his community. Plus he’s got advice for parents whose kids are consuming pornography. And finally, a call to all dads to take up the fight.  There are those of us who fight pornography. And then there are those who fight pornography by running 30 marathons in 30 days, then hop on a bike for another 56 days and cycle from Virgina to California. Ok, scratch that. There’s only one fighter like Garrett! Tune in to the podcast and listen to his incredible story.  More

Everybody knows it’s there. And that kids do find it. That they will look. And look again. But when it happens to you, in your home, with your kid, you feel completely caught off guard. Some parents describe it as a sucker punch. A flood of negative emotions. From anger to fear and everything in between. So what do you do when you find your kid is looking at pornography?  There’s a growing number of resources to help parents focus on prevention. (So good.) And it seems like there are a lot of recovery options to help adults who want freedom from pornography. (Also good.) But doesn’t it feel like there’s a big gap in the conversation? As if no one wants to talk about what to do when a KID is looking at pornography? And how to help them stop?  We get it. It feels awkward and uncomfortable. But “what to do when a kid is looking at pornography” is not something we shy away from on the Media Savvy Moms Podcast. Cycle back to past episodes and you’ll notice this is a question we ask our guests over and over. We al

It has happened to all of us at one time or another. We’re lured into a false sense of security. We think we’re in a safe space. And then we (or our children!) are assaulted by an inappropriate image or message. Learn how the Choose Change campaign can give us ways to fight back! Pornography and sexual exploitation are a huge plague in our society. But have you ever thought about the big bucks behind them? Did you ever consider that you can reach some of the organizations that are fueling the problem and actually make a difference? What if it was as easy as the click of a button? Would you take time to help? This is Glendyne Gerrard’s mission. To educate members of the community. To defend children and families. And to make it easy to get involved in causes that will make a difference. As co-founder of Defend Dignity, the organization behind the annual Choose Change campaign, she is doing just that.  More about today’s guest Glendyne Gerrard helped found Defend Dignity, an initiative of The Christian & M

You know it has to be done. The porn talk. Cue the sweaty palms and racing heart. And what about our kids? How do we pull this off without stressing them out? Wouldn’t you like to know?   This show is actually a sneak peek of the content in our FREE guide, 10 Surprisingly Natural Ways to Talk to Your Kids About Pornography. Find the link in our complete podcast notes at Parents Aware. You’ll get awesome ideas for starting great discussions with your kids. All in surprising natural ways!  You’ve got questions. We’ve got answers. Most parents know they need to talk to their kids about pornography. They just get stuck on how to do it. It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. It feels scary, awkward and uncomfortable.  A lot of parents also wonder when they should start the porn talk. Our answer is always the same—start today!  Do you have young children? No worries. Everything we talk about in this episode can be adapted to any age. Maybe you have teens? That’s good too. Research shows tha