With technology embedded in just about everything we do, there is no reason that everyone, especially parents, not to have a firm understanding of technology today.

It is not 1982, a time in which the web was in its infancy, and most had no clue what the web was and what role it played in our lives. But now, we are in a time where technology rules just about everything around us.

And not using this tool to help guide us is kind of like rowing upstream and wondering why you aren't getting anywhere.

Now, on the one side, I understand why many aren't eagerly embracing technology. I get how learning something new can be daunting, and many gadgets seem complex. And I completely understand how parents, just aren't interested in adding anything else to an already heavy load.

But by not embracing the tools to improve how we live our lives is, in my opinion, one of the biggest act of disservice we can do to our kids.

Why? Because what we don't know about tech may hurt our kids.

As parents, we must take a vested interest in understanding the online tools available to protect our children and to teach them that all that lives on the Internet is not safe.

I am a firm believer of parents learning how to use the tools before allowing their children to use them. Know what websites to block and properly protect your computer from viruses. But by not embracing technology, parents are:

1. Overspending. Yep, if parents fully understood how these 'trendy' gadgets worked most wouldn't be spending their hard earned cash on them.

2. Not using the parenting 80/20 rule. A parent-child relationship is broken down as follows: Parents must do 80% of the work to get kids to communicate 20% of the time. And if we are not using all their modes of communication, we will see that number dwindle.

3. Not raising good digital citizens. By not being the first defense in teaching appropriate Internet use, how will they know to use good judgment? Or how will they know not to visit questionable sites, chat with strangers, share personal information if it is not taught at home?
4. Adding to their workload. Technology has allowed us to cut out the middle man and allows us to be much more productive and effective in our day-to-day tasks. In not learning and accepting technology in your life, you are essentially recreating the wheel, and no one wants that.

So go ahead, close the technological divide between you and your kids. Take the bull by the horns, and embrace the world in which we live in without fear.