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Posts tagged "family"

What You Should Know Before Buying Life Insurance

Three in 10 American households are uninsured and half say they need more life insurance, according to the LIFE Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to educate people about the importance insurance in protecting their financial futures.

Many people realize that life insurance is an important way to provide for their families, but buying life insurance can seem daunting. How do you know if you’re picking the best coverage for you and your family?

The American Council of Life Insurers offers the following tips to help you pick out the best plan:

  • Decide if you need permanent or term life insurance. Permanent policies will provide money to your family no matter when you die. Term policies will pay only if you die during a specific period of time.
  • When you’re trying to decide between life insurance companies, ask family and friends for recommendations. You can also meet with an insurance agent to talk through your options.
  • Ask for the outlines of several plans so you can compare the features of the various options you’re considering.
  • Always answer the questions on your application truthfully.
  • Once you select a plan, store the policy with your other important financial documents, but not in a safe deposit box. Upon death, boxes are sometimes sealed temporarily by the bank, which could delay your family’s access to the coverage.
  • Review and update your policy from time to time, especially after major life events like marriages or children being born.

Learn more about life insurance and what questions you should ask before buying a policy.

Here are some tips to reduce your children’s risk of cancer later in life.

Explore the Redesigned Kids.gov!

Kids.gov is the U.S. government’s website for children (grades K-8). Kids, parents, and teachers can use the site to get help with homework, access lesson plans, watch videos, play games, and more.

If you’ve visited Kids.gov previously, you’ll notice that the website has been completely redesigned. The vibrant new site provides areas for three specific audiences: kids (grades K-5), teens (grades 6-8), and grown-ups (teachers and parents).

Enjoy exploring all that Kids.gov has to offer, including the following examples:

Get Your Car Seats Inspected During Child Passenger Safety Week

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 12 years old. Deaths and injuries can be prevented by the proper use of car seats, booster seats, and seat belts.

Child Passenger Safety Week, from September 16 to 22, is a good opportunity to make sure that your family and the families you know are properly using vehicle restraints. Visit www.safercar.gov/therightseat for guidelines and how-to videos on car seat and seat belt use and installation. You can also find car seat ease-of-use ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

For even more help, find a child car seat inspection station near you. Certified technicians will inspect your child car seat - in most cases, free of charge - and show you how to correctly install and use it.

How to Protect Your Kids from Cyber Bullying

Cyber bullying can happen any time of the day.

Teenagers use cell phones and computers to harass others by sending malicious text messages, uploading embarrassing photos or videos on websites, or taking over someone’s social media profile or creating a new one.

Although it takes place in cyberspace, there are several things you can do at home to protect your children from being harassed online. These tips will help you get started.

Prevent Cyber Bullying

You can prevent cyber bullying by knowing what your kids are doing online and establishing certain rules on the use of cell phones and computers. This will help minimize the chances that your teenager will harass someone online or be a victim of cyber bullying.

Stopbullying.gov has several tips to help you protect your kids:

  • Install monitoring software on your kids’ devices and tell your children that it’s your responsibility as a parent to check their interactions when you consider it appropriate
  • Teach your kids to abstain from sharing photos or videos that might cause them problems if other people see them, especially people who are not their friends
  • “Follow” your kids on social media or ask another adult to do it on your behalf so you can stay up-to-date on what they are doing or saying
  • Tell them it’s important that they tell you if they are the victims of cyber bullying so that you can help them

Respond to Cyber Bullying

You can start to put an end to cyber bullying by doing the following:

  • Don’t answer cyber bullying messages and ask your kids to share with you all of the messages they’ve received
  • Block the bully on social media and eliminate or block the bully’s e-mail address
  • Keep all evidence of cyber bullying, including text messages and harassing e-mails

Report Cyber Bullying

States have laws and policies against bullying, so be sure to contact your school if your child is being harassed online. Schools can take several measures to respond to specific cases.

Parents can also report bullies to the social media sites as bullies often violate the company’s policies and terms and conditions. Parents can also contact the police. Cyber bullying is a crime when messages contain:

  • Threats of violence
  • Child pornography or photos with sexually explicit messages
  • Images taken from places where the person expected privacy, like a bathroom

Cyber bullying is also a crime when someone is stalking a victim or engaging in activities considered to be a hate crime.

Video Challenge on Cyber Bullying

Teens between the ages of 13 and 18 are invited to participate in a 60 second video challenge on what young people can do to prevent bullying at school. Prizes range from $500-$2,000 and winners will have their video published on Stopbullying.gov. The last day to submit videos is October 14, 2012.