Life360

Every week a random commenter wins a $100 Amazon gift card. Each time you leave a comment on any post at Life360 Now!, you’re automatically entered in our weekly drawing — up to 10 comments a week.

Entrants must be 18 and older, and obviously, spam comments won’t win. We’re looking for real comments, with real people having real conversations. Winners are announced every Friday, so check back then. Last week’s winner was Margay. (If that’s you, send us an email.)

Recommended Posts to Comment On

• When should parents introduce their kids to chores?
• How much does Facebook hurt grades?
• Are you worried about child tracking security?

How distracting is Facebook? A new study compared university 219 students, separating them by those who used Facebook and those who didn’t. The average GPA of the users was 3.06, while the non-Facebook-users was 3.82! A huge gap!

“Our study, and other previous work, suggests that while people may think constant task-switching allows them to get more done in less time, the reality is it extends the amount of time needed to carry out tasks and leads to more mistakes,” said Paul Krischnera, the Dutch psychologist who lead the study.

That said, I’m very wary of those results. First, what college student doesn’t use Facebook? How many of those 219 were users as opposed to non-users — I doubt it was split right down the middle. And since when are GPAs that high? Ludicrous!

Do you think Facebook hurts academics?

From MSNBC. Photo by UBC Library Graphics.

Life360’s own Meghan Harvey was featured on FOX News recently to talk about tracking children via GPS. Check out the clip:

The story also brings up the question of how secure and reliable companies offering child tracking services are. Though FOX News didn’t really give us a chance to respond, Life360 obviously keeps your information secure and private, giving you and only you control over your family’s safety.

But the clip also made us realize that many parents may share that same concern. So we ask:

Are you worried about the security of child tracking?

Apparently not all hand-washing methods are created equal, at least according to a new study from the University of Bradford. Researchers looked at the effects of different hand drying methods on the transfer of bacteria. The results might surprise you.

As it turns out, traditional hand dryers, which have often been touted as the most hygienic because they rely on evaporation, actually brings bacteria to the surface when rubbing your hands together. It also transfers bacteria from one hand to another. They found that the way to keep bacteria counts low was to keep using regular paper towels.

Personally, whenever I get to choose between the automatic hand dryers and paper towels, I always go for the latter because it dries my hands better. But I do feel guilty about wasting the paper!

From ScienceDaily. Photo by Arlington County.

Steffany boldly calls the Xtrema’s non-toxic cookware “one of the greatest things ever made for a household.” Check out Ceramcor for more info, and be sure to check out Steffany’s website EcoBold for more green reviews!

Heather of the very wonderful blog The iPhone Mom, and famously Babble’s list of the Top 50 iPhone Apps for Moms, has written a glowing review of Life360’s Family & Offender GPS Tracker.

“Family & Offender GPS Tracker is easy to use and gives me both knowledge and peace of mind,” she writes. “Right now I’m primarily using it for offender information but when my children are old enough to venture off on their own the family member tracking will definitely come in handy.”

You can download the iPhone app for free right now. Check out the review!

How import is sleep for babies? A new report says that children under the age of 4 who don’t get enough sleep are at a higher risk for obesity later in life.

Lack of sleep has long been associated with obesity in adults (it decreases metabolism), but now it looks like children who don’t sleep enough are 80% more likely to be obese five years later than kids who slept longer. The researchers from the University of Washington also make a distinction between night time sleep and napping — the latter of which is not a substitute for a good night’s sleep.

It’s recommended that 1-year-olds get between 13-15 hours of sleep (total), while kids 3-5 need 11-13 hours a day, naps included.

Great, as if parents didn’t have enough to worry about.

Does your baby get enough sleep?

From CNN. Photo by Dr Craig.

With divorce constantly on the minds of Americans, thanks to the recent split of Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren, you might be surprised to hear that new data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that divorce rates are at their lowest since the 1970s.

The divorce rate per 1,000 married women dropped to 16.4 in 2009 and 16.9 for 2008, a big drop from 22.6 in 1980. Some analysts claim that the downward trend in divorce rates might be a side effect of the troubled economy. The cost of legal feeds, the real-estate market, and unemployment rate has prevented people from splitting.

I hope that that analysis isn’t accurate (though I suspect that it is). I’m all for couples staying together, and weathering the storm, but hopefully finances aren’t the main impetus for people to stay together. On the upside, infidelity rates is also down over the past 20 years. So maybe there’s something to that.

Were you surprised to hear the divorce rate has dropped?

From the WSJ.

As someone who combs through parenting sites and blogs every day, it’s rare that I come across something that’s fresh in the realm of parenting advice. But this piece from Rebecca Fanter, from Hybrid Mom, was a breath of fresh air. What’s the best advice for new parents? Take time to maintain your friendships.

“Why do you need to talk to your girlfriends so often? Because they get you,” she writes. “Oh, your husband may be your best friend, but does he roll his eyes when you want to over analyze Meredith and Derek’s relationship from Grey’s Anatomy? He can be a dear and will listen to you when you tell him how bad your cramps hurt, but does he truly have an idea of what you are talking about?”

The kids might be the most important part of your life, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a part of your life to yourself.

Do you take time to maintain your friendships?

From the Bellingham Herald.

Is eating a home-cooked meal less safe than eating one prepared at a restaurant? According to the Department of Public Health in Los Angeles County, it might be.

A study found that only 61% of home kitchens would get an A or B if they were given a restaurant inspection. (14% would fail, in that they would not even receive Cs.) Compare this to restaurants in LA, where 98% of restaurants get As and Bs each year.

87 million cases of food-borne illness are recorded annual in the U.S., which results in roughly 371,000 hospitalizations and 5,700 deaths. So food safety, especially at home, is definitely something to be concerned about.

But when you cook at home, you have control over everything that goes in your food. In a restaurant, who knows what the condition of their kitchen is? So as long as you’re part of that 61% who’s diligent about keeping your kitchen clean and safe, I’d still say that eating at home is safer.

Do you think it’s safer to eat food at home or at a restaurant?

From the AP. Photo by Ben de Jesus.