Tot Jot is down right now

For those inquiring, Tot Jot is down. We'll have more information for you in the next couple of days.

Thanks for your patience.

Parenting guru still at work after all these years

If you're a good (or curious or frustrated) parent, you've probably read some of his books. He has been pumping out parenting advice since 1969, and at the ripe young age of 88, he's still at work.

T. Berry Brazelton.

His methods and mantra remain the same — offering thoughtful, reassuring advice rather than absolute rules, and letting parents make their own decisions about what works, while explaining what's going on at each stage of child development to make their job easier.

Ah..letting parents make informed decisions, instead of cramming rules down their throats. No wonder Mr. Brazelton is still going strong!

Note: this is not a wholesale endorsement or anything. In fact, we like other authors too...Burton White is another Tot Jot favorite.

Password-protected RSS feeds now available for Child's Tales

We've set up RSS feeds for your Child's Tale.

"OH NOOOOOO! My Child's Tale is no longer private and secure?"

If we answered yes to that question, we wouldn't be telling you the truth - your Child's Tale RSS feeds are password protected! Yee haw!

If you want to see your RSS feed, or you want your friends to see your RSS feed, you will need a feed reader that accepts password protected feeds. We happen to know of a good one, Newsgator Online, or you can pick your own. To access your feed, you must first enter its URL in your reader, and append the following to that URL: "?auth=digest" (quotes excluded of course). You will also have to enter your Tot Jot username and password in your password-protected capable reader in order to see the feed. Your Tot Jot friends can access your feed the same way - they do the same with the URL, and they enter THEIR Tot Jot password to view your feed.

Where can you find the feed URL? At the bottom of each and every Child's Tale, of course - only you and your Tot Jot friends can even find them (sneaky, eh?).

PS: We tested those Child's Tale RSS feeds out with our nifty Flickr Pics integration tool too!

Dr. Joyce Brothers give thumbs up to baby blogging

A concerned guy wrote to Dr. Joyce Brothers, expressing concern about his sister-in-law's blogging about her one year old baby. He said "Every detail of the baby's day is there, along with a few things I wouldn't want the world to know.."

Dr. Brothers replied, saying she thought it was just fine, as long as the blogging didn't become more important than interacting with baby.

We agree, on both accounts. Baby blogging is great for capturing day-to-day events in baby's life, but there are times where mom or dad might say some things they might not want everyone on the planet to know. In all blogging, it pays to think twice before you write, and in the excitement of some great baby/parenting event, that is sometimes harder that it sounds.

All we can say is....that's why Tot Jot is here. You can blog about your baby all you want without having to think twice - and everything in your Child's Tale is available to family and friends, any time and from anywhere they want to read it.

What could be better than an okay from Dr. Joyce Brothers? That okay in action at Tot Jot!

Gift giving for your tots, without all the stress

When birthdays and holiday times come around, everyone gives gifts to your children. It's great for your baby to get that new jumper from grandma and grandpa in the next state, for your toddler to get that new toy truck from Aunty Mae on the other coast, or for your preschooler to receive that set of books from your old college friend living in another country. The only problem is, what do you do when your kids already have those all those things? We know...it's the thought that counts. But you spend weeks returning this and that, and you wind up wishing you could've published a list of all the goodies your little ones want and need, so your friends and family didn't all send that same thing (suitable for ages 8 to 18, even though your baby is six months old!).

Now...problem solved. Check out Tot Jot Wishlists!

In cooperation with Amazon.com, we've built you a wishlist so you can build one yourself. Browse everything Amazon has to offer, or search for anything yourself. All right within Tot Jot. Add items to you child's private wishlist, linked directly to your Child's Tale. Each of your Tot Jot friends can choose items from your wishlist, fill their own shopping cart and check out through Amazon, all without ever leaving Tot Jot. Find some items your baby desperately has to have right now...then just add them to your cart and check out yourself. And don't worry - we didn't forget parents deserve a present now and then too - so even they have a wishlist, linked to their parent's blog.

Sharing wishlists with family and friends, just like sharing your tot's great little life. Log in or sign up now.

Why little online lives are safe at Tot Jot

We read this report about teen fickleness regarding online services (centering on MySpace), and noted that a lot of kids and parents cited security and privacy as major issues...

Over the summer, Birnbaum's friend Chrissy Quantrille discovered an impostor had taken her photos off her MySpace profile, set up a fake page and even used it to establish a romantic virtual relationship with a boy in California...

Her profile also landed her in hot water when a boy she didn't like kept asking to be her online friend. "I kept deleting the message," she said. "He got mad."

This kind of stuff make you wonder why you'd want to put your baby's life on a social networking site? Well, it made us wonder too! That's why...

- Profiles at Tot Jot are all private, just to be safe...
- We make you log into your parent account, and again when you access your Child's Tale, just to be safe...
- Viewing any parent blog or Child's Tale is an invitation-only affair, and we make you confirm all accepted invitations, just to be safe...
- We allow you to choose what posts your Tot Jot "friends" see, just to be safe...
- We allow you to choose what pictures you want your Tot Jot "friends" to see, just to be safe...

We've noticed other sites heading in this direction, and we suspect it will be slow goings for them. We started this way - Tot Jot was built with safety and security and privacy in mind, from day one, because nothing is more precious (and worth keeping safe) than your child.

I guess you get the hint...we are just trying (and very much succeeding), in keeping you and your child safe :-).

Thanks again,

The Tot Jot Team

Best wishes in Kona

Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It is hard to beat this story, and frankly, who would want too?

Not much else you can say but best wishes in Kona!