Are you raising kids who can't read body language?

You know that technology is changing our lives. But did you know that it is also changing our brains? According to UCLA's Memory and Aging Research Center, this is true for everyone, but it is most relevant for your children — those “digital natives” who were born into a world of laptops and cell phones, text messaging and tweeting and who have been accused of spending too much time using technology and too little time engaging in direct social contact.

Researchers are discovering that daily exposure to computers, smart phones, video games, Internet search engines, etc. stimulates brain cell alteration and neurotransmitter release, gradually strengthening new neural pathways while weakening old ones.

There is real value in the new brain circuitry your children are creating -- including a heightened ability to react more quickly to visual stimuli and to shift through large amounts of information rapidly to decide what’s important and what isn’t.

Have you considered teaching your kids how to create magic in their own lives?

My daughters are listening to one of the Harry Potter books on audio - I can hear Harry crying out 'Expecto Patronum!', the spell that summons a protective guardian energy.

Many parents have been as caught up in the magic and mystery of their children's fantasy books as their children, but how many have considered teaching their kids how to create magic in their own lives? Real magic?

I've long been struck by the fact that our children's choice of fiction is either fantasy, in which characters straddle dragons or broomsticks and possess magical items or supernatural abilities, or faction, in which characters deal with real-life dilemmas like divorce and drugs and death.

No doubt, mothers and daughters have a unique connection.

It starts out nurturing and playful when they are children, travels through ignorance and stubbornness, and winds down to respect and admiration. How can that journey become a more joyful experience when we are both grown? Follow these 6 (simple?) rules for a better, more fulfilling mother-daughter relationship.

1. Tensions between two women, in general, can be stressful.

But between a mother and daughter it can be suffocating. Communication is the key.

Listen, talk, then listen some more. Ask questions. Don't judge.

Unravel the tension by being encouraging, accepting and offering unconditional love instead of offering advice. How? For mothers - step into your daughter's shoes. What pressures is she under? For daughters - see you mother as another woman. What experiences brought her to where she is? See your mother as another woman.

I am sitting here late at night watching addicted, trying to figure out where these parents might have gone wrong or where might they have prevented the issues their children face.

Yes, sometimes there is absolutely nothing they could have done, other times I see that it is a broken home, molestation, abuse, death, etc. I think about my 2 small children and try everything I can to not let them ever become a statistic. I want them healthy, happy, and productive in life. I think about my own life.

I am the product of a broken home. I have divorced and remarried parents. My father has been remarried about 4 times. Not sure, I lost count. I know he has been engaged more than he has been married. Some I have not liked so much, the one he is with now, I adore. If they quit smoking, I will adore her even more. Ha. She is really great and I finally have someone that I feel like I can call my step-mom. Funny I can say that at 31.