kids Archives

The secret meanings behind emojis

Emojis are your digital body language, and just like in real life, one wrong move can send the totally wrong message. 😬 The right emoji adds personality, sarcasm or a playful tone. But some of these tiny icons carry hidden meanings you might not realize.

Use the 🍆 emoji to talk about dinner? Yikes. Definitely don’t send 🐱 thinking it’s just cute. Even something as simple as the 😅 emoji might read way more awkward than you intended.

One bad emoji, and you’ve accidentally turned “Thanks!” into “I’m flirting” or worse, “I’m confused and sweating.”

So before you hit send, read this. 👇 It might just save you from an emoji facepalm.

Most misused emojis

😂 Crying laughing: If this is your go-to, you’re a jokester. There’s a reason I use it with my dad jokes. Heads up, Gen Z definitely thinks it’s for old people. Oh well.

💀 Skull: It means “I’m dead,” as in, laughing so hard it just about killed you. Super popular with Gen Z and now millennials. Use it and your kids or grandkids will think you’re groovy.

🔥 Fire: If you’re constantly dropping the fire emoji, you’re all about hype and enthusiasm. It’s the equivalent of saying, “That’s awesome!”

🙃 Upside-down smiley: The king of sarcasm for those of you with a dry sense of humor. It’s the perfect way to say, “Yeah, sure … whatever.”

👍 Thumbs-up: Sorry, but it usually comes across as passive-aggressive. When you respond to a long text with just a thumbs-up, people see it as dismissive. I’ll share what I use instead below.

🙏 Praying hands: Are you using this emoji to say “thank you” or to actually pray? You’re probably a thoughtful and appreciative person. Some people still confuse it for a high five.

👀 Side-eye: Dropping the 👀 emoji in a message? You’re either curious, gossiping or hinting at something juicy.

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Egg-cellent finds

🐣 Just one week until Easter! Let’s hop into it.

Your kids will turn your sidewalk into art with a $9.99 12-pack chalk set. For some reason, the 9-pack is the same price.
Grab a dino egg kit (20% off) for a prehistoric twist to your egg hunt.
These wooden stacking blocks (10% off) make great basket stuffers.
Get your hands on this cute LEGO Easter (9% off) rabbits building set.
Bunny-shaped toaster tongs (41% off) are perfect for your Easter morning.

🍫 Sweeten the deal: Chocolate lovers, treat yourself to a yummy assortment of candies from Hershey (10% off) or Dove ($13).

We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.

The Kim Komando Show Preview: ChatGPT called him a murderer

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A man searched his name on ChatGPT. It said he killed two of his kids. He didn’t. Plus, Apple’s intelligence troubles, a warning for “Call of Duty” cheaters, and billboards in space are on the way.

🍿 Minecraft mayhem: Minecraft meets real-life survival mode. Teens are going wild for the new Minecraft movie, shouting, tossing snacks, spraying lotion on seats and someone even let live chickens loose. Why? Many kids got hooked on the game during the pandemic. Now they’re letting all that nostalgia loose in the form of chaos. Talk about a block party!

4

The number of toys your toddler needs to be happy. Yep, no need for a mountain of plushies and plastic cars. A study found that kids given too many playthings got overstimulated and jumped from toy to toy. But with just four? They slowed down, focused and played longer. Oh, and no need to toss everything. Just rotate them.

📵 This will be on the test: Do your kids have Androids? School Time on Google Family Link keeps them focused by turning off notifications and limiting apps. Select your child, tap the Screen time (three bars) > Schedules > School time. You can set breaks for lunch, recess or vacations, too.

Ready, set, let’s go

🥳 Amazon’s Big Spring Sale has everything for epic family fun.

Keep little ones busy with a foldable playpen (20% off) that’s easy to store. Grandparents, you need one!
When playtime’s over, toss all the toys in a sturdy toy box (15% off).
Kiddos’ first camera (20% off) reminds me of an old-school Polaroid.
The Amazon Fire Kids tablet (26% off) has built-in controls to keep ’em safe.
Level up your gaming setup with an LG 27-inch monitor (40% off).
This gaming keyboard (42% off) has fun, colorful LED keys.
Hear every detail of the action with a new gaming headset (43% off).
Rock out anywhere with a portable Bluetooth speaker (20% off).
Timber! A block stacking game (15% off) is a summer must.
OK, I kinda want this floating basketball game (15% off) for the pool.

🐶 Fetch and chase: When your pets get the zoomies, toss a glow-in-the-dark bouncy ball (41% off). Your cat would probably prefer a laser (24% off).

We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.

$1 million

A rare photo of Abraham Lincoln might sell for that at auction. The pic was made between 1895 and 1900 using an original negative from 1860. Bidding starts at $250,000 and kicks off today at 10 a.m. ET. I’ll never forget when I told my son to get off his Xbox and said, “When Abraham Lincoln was your age, he used to walk 10 miles every day to get to school.” Ian responded, “Really? Well, when he was your age, he was president.” Kids.

😴 Schools are teaching kids how to sleep: Forget band and robotics. Most teens are getting just six hours of sleep a night, way below the recommended eight for developing brains. Blame late-night scrolling and heavy schedules. The fix? Classes that teach time management, no phones before bed and skipping midnight snacks. Next up: teaching Gen A how to blink between TikToks.

Who needs privacy? The Limitless AI pendant is a tiny device that clips onto your shirt, records everything you say and uploads it to an app. Why would anyone want that? It can then spit out summaries of your convos, create to-do lists and offer self-improvement tips (paywall link). Like, “Be more patient with your kids.” Yeah, I’m not paying for a backseat driver.

Less than 1%

That’s how much of his fortune Bill Gates plans to leave each of his kids. But don’t start a GoFundMe just yet. He’s worth $102.2 billion, so they’ll still walk away with over $1 billion each. Imagine hearing “you only get a billion” and feeling robbed.

📍 T-Mobile messed up big-time: The company sells a GPS tracker so parents can see their young kids’ locations if they don’t have a phone yet. But last week, a software glitch showed users the live locations, names and photos of random children instead (paywall link)! Somewhere, a lawyer just whispered: “delicious.” It’s apparently been fixed, but seriously, that kind of info should never be leaked.

🌙 Need a bedtime story for the kids? It’s tough to get creative at 8 p.m. when your brain’s fried from a long day. No worries, just use a chatbot to tell the tale. I like to include the child’s age, interests and a theme. For example: “Can you make up a bedtime story for a 5-year-old boy about a brave knight?” Voilà, no stress to impress.

Create separate Netflix profiles: Netflix recommends content based on what you watch, so don’t let kids’ cartoons or your partner’s thrillers mess with your rom-com queue. Go to Manage Profiles > Add Profile > Name it > Continue > Save. Bonus: It also makes it easier to keep track of what they’ve been watching.

Oh, this quote: Remember when Roblox’s CEO basically said, “If you can’t watch your kids, don’t let them play Roblox.” That was a PR disaster. So Roblox now lets parents block specific friends from their kid’s account. Basically the digital version of “I don’t like that kid, he’s a bad influence.”

Alexa+ is here … kinda: The gall! Amazon’s new $20/month (Yikes!) AI assistant is rolling out to newer Alexa devices, but a few hyped-up features are MIA. Right now, you can order an Uber, get cooking advice and upload docs for summaries. Storytelling for kids, recognizing who’s in the room and chore reminders are coming. FYI, smarter Alexa is free if you pay for Prime.

🌲 This is tree-mendous: Nearsightedness in kids is exploding because of screens. Get this. In a study, children were placed in a classroom with tree imagery and a sky-like ceiling. After a year, they showed less vision decline than those in a regular room. Time to go outside, kids!

Dumb and dumber: Police are looking for four kids caught on camera following a bonehead viral TikTok trend. These troublemakers threw themselves against random garage doors to rack up likes and views. Homeowners are stuck paying thousands to fix the damage. Make sure your outside cams are working.

Check your kid’s phone for Zepeto: If you have kids, think Roblox meets Facebook, where people create avatars and explore virtual worlds. A mom says a predator used the private messaging feature to contact her 12-year-old daughter. The sicko pretended to be a teen, asked if she’d had sex and demanded photos. Gross.

Remember Ruby Franke? She’s an evil mommy vlogger who went to prison last year for abusing and starving her kids. New laws are in the works to stop parents from using their kids for clicks. If a parent makes over $150K a year from family content, they must put some money into a trust (paywall link). Once kids hit 18, they can ask for old videos to be taken down. About time.