2008 HOLIDAY SAFETY TIPS

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 It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holidays. You’ve got parties, decorations and shopping on your mind—but that’s all the more reason to be aware and keep alert of any potential dangers. Below are some safety guidelines by the American Academic of Pediatrics to keep in mind this holiday season.

Tips on How to Create Secure and Smart Passwords

These days we subscribe to so many newsletters, buy online in so many virtual shops and do direct banking and manage other personal financials online that creating secure and smart passwords is so important.  Here are some tips on how to create secure and smart passwords:

Safety Tips: Home's Best Fire Escape Route

Do You Know Your Home’s Best Fire Escape Route? I would say the majority of you like me may not know your home's best fire escape route.  This is short and sweet post contributed by FireAngel.com.uk. is filled with very good fire safety tips that will help you be prepared in the event of an unfortunate fire.

Tips: How to Spot an Online Donation Scam this Holiday Season

The holiday season is one of the best time of the year not only because of all the nice festivities, decorations, and the spirit we get into, but mostly because it is the time of giving, and that includes for many of us giving money to our favorite charity too! In addition to being smart shoppers this Holiday season to save here and there, we also need to be smart givers so be careful where you put your in for donations. Avoid online scams!

Make sure to protect yourself from online donation scams--a number of which circulate on the Internet. Most online donation scams take the form of unwanted and sometimes fraudulent spam e-mail messages and posts in online forums, asking for donations in the name of well-known legitimate charities, or disaster victims and survivor funds.

This form of fraud, called phishing, uses a type of spam or pop-up window that claims to be from a legitimate organization, but is used to con money or personal information from would-be donors.

Phishing e-mails often provide links to phony Web sites that appear to be official. (Phishing can be done over the phone, so it's wise to be skeptical of phone solicitations for charitable causes, as well.)

Here are some tips by Microsoft to help avoid online scams this Holiday Season and always!

1. Improve your computer's security (i.e., keep firewall on, keep anti-virus, OS and spyware up to date).
2. Use current technology to help block spam;
3. Use the Microsoft Phishing Filter or other protection software.
4. Be on guard if you receive an unsolicited e-mail from a charitable organization asking for money. Don't click any links or enter any personal information.
5. Instead of responding to solicitations, proactively contact well-known and established charity agencies that you or people you trust have used before.
6. If you do receive an e-mail request from a charity you'd like to support, go to their Web site by manually typing their address into your Internet browser, rather than by clicking a link in the e-mail message. Better still, call them for verification and to find out how to contribute.
7. While online, manually type in the aid organization's address into your Internet browser.
8. Double-check the spelling of the organization's Web site, and get in the habit of always looking at the actual Internet address (for example, "http://www.redcross.org") before you continue browsing a Web site. Spoofed Web sites often use deliberate, easily overlooked misspellings to deceive users.
9. Be wary of e-mails that claim to attach photos of disaster victims or areas—these attachments could be infected with computer viruses or worse.
10. If you provide your credit card number or personal information to a charity-related Web site, make sure the site uses legitimate site certificates and that there is a written policy about protecting personal information.
11. Keep up to date on the latest online scams through trusted technology news providers, government agencies, and other professional sources.

-The Moms Buzz

source: www.microsoft.com

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Health Safety Tips: What to Do About Spider Bites

It is not unusual to be bit by a spider so it is a good idea to know what do to do about spider bites.  According to Kidshealth.com, you should take the following steps:

Sites for Checking Whether an Email is a Hoax or Not

I am sure you get these emails or even Facebook posts all the time about,  "a virus was just announced that will burn your hard drive, or if you send these to 10 people so and so will donate $$ for charity, etc."  Before resending these emails, what you can do is a reality check find out what's real and what's not.  Here are highly recommended sites for checking whether an email is a hoax or not:

1. Snopes.com: is the most trusted and popular online watchdog.  Entries are well researched, with original sources and veracity is provided.


2. Urbanlegends.About.com: gives you a status of false, dubious or true and provides analysis.


3. Hoax-Slayer.com: it organizes hoaxes in to topics such as celebrity, charity, phone calls, etc. It covers most of the bases.

So, next time, just before you click that "forward" button to send it to the entire world, do a reality check with these three most trusted sites.

- The Moms Buzz

source: ShopSmartMag.com July 2010

Grilling Etiquette

If you did not know, May is the National Barbecue Month. With the weather getting nicer and warmer, throwing a barbecue is the way to entertain. For that, Moms Buzz wants to share with you the grilling etiquette, the dos and don'ts. Please share this with your husband if he's usually the person manning the grill at home. Take notes...

Grilling Etiquette

When invited to a Barbecue:

• DO feek OK bringing your own sauce. 49% of grillers say it is acceptable.
• DO expect themeat to be provided by the host, but pull your weight by brining your own sides and beverages. Go the extra mile and bring enough to share with others.
• DON'T touch the grill! 61% of people say that only the host/hostess shold "man" the grill. As a guest you can look, but don't touch.

As the host of a barbecue:

• DO have all grilled food ready at relatively the same time.
• DO offer grilled vegetarian options.
• DON'T feel obligated to invite your neighbors.

In general, when grilling with others:

• DO start eating your food if your meat is finished before everyone else's.
• DO stake your claim at a community grill by laying out your grilling utensils or meat.
• DO be considerate of others. It is only appropriate to flip your own meat and the meat of others when manning a grill.

You can read more about grilling at The Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association.

Enjoy grilling during May, the month of the barbecues!

- The Moms Buzz

Sun Safety Factors to Keep in Mind with Sunscreen

Oh, yeah! The warmer weather has said hello already, and that means lots of protection for our skins and that of our family members', especially the children.  However, do not forget that it is OK to receive some sun 10-15 minutes to get our daily dose of Vitamin D!  This is another topic to talk about, but for this post, we'll cover sun safety factors to keep in mind with sunscreen:

Make YouTube a Little Safer for Your Children (Young and Older)

If you did not know here are some facts about YouTube:

• Kids are supposed to be 13 to use YouTube
• Anything -- from fabulous to icky -- can be uploaded or viewed
• YouTube relies on community monitoring to flag iffy videos
• Safety Mode helps filter inappropriate content

Since many of out children watch and look for children stuff in YouTube, you may want to make YouTube a little safer for your children.  YouTube has a SafetyMode that you can turn on to filter our the iffy stuff.  Here is a YouTube video tutorial with safety tips and that will tell how to do it:

- The Moms Buzz

Food Safe Picnics Tips

Spring weekends mean picnic time with family and friends, and it is important we take care the right measures for keeping our food safe while outdoors for long periods of time. 

Preparing, serving and eating safe food is important.  We must constantly practice safe food handling to avoid illness.  Here are some food safe picnics tips so that you make the best of your fun time outdoors:

Safety Tips When Buying Frozen Foods

When you are at the supermarket, don't think that everything you see if perfectly safe.  Here are some safety tips when buying Frozen Foods:

Safe Bicycling for Young and Older Children - Tips

Although it's still cold out there, it will get warmer soon being the perfect time for children to ride their bikes.  If you live in one of those lucky cities like Washington, DC, where it was Spring time this past weekend, children of all ages where riding their bikes. 

How to Set iPhone's Parental Controls

I love my iPhone and guess who else?  My kids too!  However, iPhones or iTouchs are like little computers, and if you have parental controls in your home computer, you may want to do the same with your iPhone.  Here is how to set iPhone's parental controls:

Dos and Don'ts of Online Holiday Shopping

The holiday shopping season has started already - although not officially - and what we dread the most is usually getting a parking spot at the malls and waiting in line to pay.  For busy moms, online shopping is the helping hand we need during this season. It is convenient, fits our busy schedule, no need to fight the traffic, and we can tackle almost all our holidays gift shopping in one seating! (provided the kids are asleep, right? ;))  But, as convenient as it is, we still need to take some precautions when shopping online.  Here are some dos and don'ts of online holiday shopping safety:

Situations Where Massage Should Be Avoided - Safety Tips

As busy moms we always feel what a treat a massage could be, but of course, there is no room in our busy agendas most of the time.  Although, we long for such a peaceful and therapeutic moment, we need to keep in mind that there are situations where massage should be avoided:

Food Safety Picnics - 3 Basic Tips

Weather has been good this Summer, very little humidity without extreme hot temperatures as in past years.  This fabulous Summer weather has lent itself to picnics beyond the Spring season.

Preparing, serving and eating safe food is very important when on a picnic. We must constantly practice safe food handling to avoid illness, and especially, when the food will remain outside for a long time.  

Follow these 3 basic food safety tips and you will be ready enjoy a safe food picnic:

Bridging the Digital Gap Between Parents and Teenagers

The importance of family internet safety education and etiquette is often overlooked by both kids and teenagers today. While most teens are more ahead of the curve than most parents when it comes to the internet, they may not have the knowledge to help keep them safe from online dangers and its potentially negative effects.

The Moms Buzz would love to introduce you to a new initiative by Girl Scouts called LMK (text-speak for “Let Me Know") which provides parents and girls with resources catering to both generations, and whose goal is to bridge the digital gap between parents and teenagers.

Three Safe Sites for Kids Recommended by PCMag.com

We are all concerned about where our kids surf the net, install parent control features in our family computers and supervise where they play online. There are plenty of safe sites for kids on the Internet, and the three safe sites for kids that we are telling about today are high recommended by PCMag.com for games, videos, news and more:

Choosing the Right Size Bicycle for Your Child

Choosing the right size bicycle for your child is one of the most important safety measures for your child when riding a bike.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, all bikes must be the correct size for the child to whom the bike is sold to prevent an accident.  Even though, more often than not, we tend to go to a bike shop to buy our family bikes, where they will "size" the bike to our child, it is important that you also know about the following tests to ensure your child is getting the right size bicycle:

Recall Alert on Peanut Butter Products

As you may have heard from the news since January 12, 2009, there has been a recall on peanut butter products associated to a salmonella outbreak.  Today, Peanut Corporation of America announced a further recall of peanut products that may be contaminated with salmonella.  Below are some of the products and brands you need to consider disposing of all at once.

• All peanut butter products with the King Nut label.
• Austin and Keebler branded Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers.  
• Snack-size packs of famous Amos Peanut Butter Cookies and Keebler Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies.    
• Little Debbie peanut paste crackers. 
• LÄRABAR peanut butter cookie flavor snack bars and JamFrakas Peanut Butter Blisscrisp flavor snack bars.
• Wal-Mart Bakery brands of peanut butter cookies, peanut butter no-bake cookies, and peanut butter fudge no-bake cookies.

The salmonella outbreak is the second in two years involving peanut butter. Salmonella is the nation's leading cause of food poisoning; common symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps.   If you suspect your child has any of these symptoms, and may have consumed any of the products mentioned above, take him urgently to the doctor.

- The Moms Buzz

source: various