What's In Your Toolbox?

Hey y'all. Happy Thursday. This is caretaker Thursday. You've been getting a lot of jill on these Thursdays, so here I am on a Thursday. I will wait for the notification to go out for a couple of seconds. How are you all doing? Happy Thursday. Almost Friday, also known as pre Friday, which is a big relief for a lot of us that love some relaxation time on the weekends, if you get it. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Mary. I own a company with my best friend and business partner who's usually on here with me called girls mentorship.

So we teach life and personal development skills to teen and tween girls and we are here on caretaker Thursday to kind of help pour back into those of you caring for the girls in our world. Teen and tween is like ten to 18. However, just because we said teen and tween doesn't mean that the skills and tools that we teach girls aren't applicable to every single age out there. Which is why we love popping in on caretaker Thursday so much. We are the guiding force of the next generation. We are the ones pouring back into them.

So we need to get poured into as well. Jill, in case anybody is wondering, is at the Grand Canyon, or at least well on her way to the Grand Canyon with her fourth grade son's class. They're taking a class trip. Jill and I have both lived in Arizona. We're based in Arizona since I would say 2007 and she's never been to the Grand Canyon. So this is a big thing for her. So we talk on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesdays we do a trending Tuesday where we talk about what's going on in the world that you, as carefully caretakers, particularly parents, need to be made aware of because it pertains to your child or has the ability to impact your child in some way, shape or form.

So we've been talking what's going on, JC so we've been talking a lot on trending Tuesday about things that are going on in the world, one of which has been the pertinent TikTok ban. I'm assuming you've heard the word TikTok. Hi, Chris, how are you? You probably know what's going on because it's been all over the news. Roll call. What's going on in terms of it shutting down? TikTok is an incredible share platform. A lot of Gen Z and Gen Alpha, that's the younger generation, are very heavy into using TikTok for their daily source of news.

So my message to you caretakers today, parents especially, is going to be short and sweet. And I feel like it pertains to just how much information that we get on a daily basis. I think the stat that I recently read was we get five times more information on a daily basis than our counterparts living in 1986. That is equivalent to 174 newspapers. And I bring that up because your children are online, the younger generation is online. There's no avoiding us being online. That's why we created spaces like this, to feel positive and healthy while being online.

Amidst all of the other stuff that's floating around. I wanna call out TikTok in particular because of how incredible it is with sharing information. Like I said, the younger generations are using it as their news source. They're no longer tuning into a CNN or a Fox News. They're getting it from one another. I believe it's called social reporting at this time. And I bring that up because there's a lot of world issues going on around TikTok and Instagram. And I feel like as parents, Jill and I are in our Super bowl season, we're getting ready for summer camp.

And on our intake form, we ask a question to the parents as to why they're enrolling their kids in our camp. A lot of it has to do with the Internet not being able to teach an old dog new tricks. They feel like they are too old to get on TikTok. They're too old to have a snapchat, they're too old to have and be posting on Instagram. And all of that might be true. However, since we're living in such a completely different day and age where information is so readily available and vast, it behooves parents and caretakers much to be in the know.

Now, obviously, you have to define what that means to you be in the know. Maybe that means you sign up for every platform and you get used to using the app so you can remain in conversation around relevant topics. Maybe that means you plug into a source that's doing it for you. Meaning there's lots of organizations, including ours, that do weekly trend reports through their weekly newsletter. That way parents who are running around and have a nine to five job and then have to take kids to sports this, that, the other, they might have a side hustle.

They're not trying to get all over all of these apps and learn all of the new dances and information that's going on. It would be more helpful for somebody to do that for them. So I, Jill and I have too many conversations with parents who are completely out of the loop, off the know, with what their kids are doing online or what their kids are engaged in online. And a mom said it so poignantly and so beautiful the other day that she didn't want her daughter to outpace her. Now, as caretakers, we want the best for whom we're caring for.

We oftentimes want them to be better than us. But in order to lead them in a way where they don't feel like they're leading themselves amidst all of this information overload, plugged into news sources left and right, we have to be able to take the reins and lead them ourselves. We're gonna be able to teach them how to be confident and their leadership skills and how to conflict resolve without falling into all those pitfalls that we fell into before. And I honestly, this all ties back to why we're here.

Cadre is such the beautiful app for lived experience, where we get to reach our hand back and say, hey, I've been where you've been, and I'd love to share a little bit more about my experience and what helped me get through it. We're the same with leading the next generation, right? They're the next generation of leaders and doctors and lawyers and politicians, and we want them to be as equipped as possible. And in order for that to happen, you have to be in the know with what they're experiencing and what they feel called to protest about, and what they feel called to stand on that hill that they feel called to stand on.

You won't know what those things are unless you're plugged in. And the excuse that Jill and I get a lot of the time is the concept of time. We don't have time to do this. I don't have time to learn something like this. The learning curve is so high at this point. In that case, your kids will outpace you and you will be left behind so much faster than the people in 1986 were because of how quickly this world is moving. So if I could plea or plead anything to anybody raising, I mean, I'm just going to say, 25 and under.

If you have 25 and under at your household, make sure that you are plugging in in a way that works for you so you understand. Have a touch point on, can keep the pulse of what's going on in this world, and you can have relevant, topic savvy conversations with those under 25 year olds. Hi, speak wonder. How are you? I'm curious, do any of you have influences in your life that are under 25? JC, I know you do. You're plugged into the theater world. That's really important. Chris, I would say you just based on probably who comes through your sober houses.

And yes, JC, you said it's so necessary. It is scary, which is why we have to get plugged in. Because if we're scared of it, our kids are seeing all of this stuff. We literally are not at the point to be able to shroud them from any of this. They're going to see it regardless of what we do to keep safeguards in place. I don't even this is a total other tangent, but at the least they can be at a friend's house and see that their friend has access to the Internet even if you haven't allowed them to.

So it's one of those things that it pays to be in the know around. And JC, I would agree. Get on TikTok if you need a little crash course. Your girl is definitely here to support you in that. So it is Thursday. We have Shannon Paul up after us. She does wonderful little coffee chats into the weekend. Friday and Saturday are stacked with awesome creators as well, talking about completely different things than we talk about. We're very niche in the fact that we work with teen and tween girls and therefore support caretakers in that way.

But there are so many incredible creators on this app just living to share their stories with you. So make sure that you look at the live schedule Friday, Saturday, Sunday into your weekend so you can spend some time getting filled up with this Cadre sphere as well. Jill and I will be back Tuesday next week with another trending topic, Tuesday report for you all. Enjoy the rest of your day and we will see you next week. It.