ONLINE PARENTING: SOLUTION FOR THE “BUSY-BEE” PARENTS

Abstract

The school has become a second home for children at today age. Children spent more time at school rather than at home. Word "Parent" has taken new meaning since "biological" parents have transferred some of their responsibilities to "mandatory" parents at school. The practice has now been further intensified by the use of Information Technology (IT) that facilitates distance interface communication between the parent-school-children. With online services, the parent can real-timely monitor the baby and the baby sitter or teacher while doing her/his task in a separate location. Consequently, a new parenting style is then needed. Online parenting is becoming a new trend in urban society. This short article is intended to provide an overview and suggestion on how to use social media for parenting education. The online parenting program has currently popular with social media users. The common applications used are WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. These applications provide a way out to interact among parents, parents and teacher, parents and grandparents, and also parents and experts. The use of social media for parenting purpose requires some basic rules and arrangement to be agreed among the participants; otherwise, its importance will be degraded and its role as parenting platform will not function as expected. Online parenting program benefits the "busy-bee" parents with: (1) time management, (2) knowledge gathering, and (3) promoting the partnership. Sharing information and participation are much easier by using this online parenting programme especially in selecting priority characters to be introduced at school and then powering them up at home. The parallel system used by both biological and mandatory parents will reinforce the intended characters built in the child.

Keywords: Online Parenting, Social Media, Parent’s Involvement