Should our daughters fear athletes?

Sally Jenkins writes a moving article in the Washington Post about the culture of some sports and the athletes who play them.
Yeardley Love was murdered by a boy who's temper and bouts with rage were well known to his teammates and friends. But they tried to contain George Huguely rather than alert others that he needed serious help. They were more comfortable staying silent in the face of this out of control teammate. George Huguely was more protected by his teammates and friends than Yeardley Love was.

Where were the boys when she needed help?
We need to talk to our children and tell them that by remaining silent in the face of abuse they may be condoning the bad behavior that they detest.

Huffington Post goes Bottom Fishing

I expect more substance from the Huffington Post than an article about how Jennifer Aniston lost weight on a baby food diet- ( 14 servings of baby food a day)- It's the next new diet for women after the cleansing juice diet. First clothing is manufactured in size 0 suggesting women disappear and now we are required to regress by eating baby food, all in pursuit of an airbrushed lie.
When mothers succumb to this pressure, they pass the insanity onto their daughters.

Are children going up too fast or too slowly?

Parents are concerned that their tweens grow up too fast. They dress like adults and are exposed to popular culture 24-7. There definitely is a pseudo sophistication that tweens and teens display today. Yet as they grow they are slow to achieve the life skills that young adults easily attained in past generations. On one hand they act adult and on the other hand they progress to real adulthood much more slowly. In the New York Times blog, Lisa Belkin writes about this subject and a study from Oregon State University published in the journal for Transition to Adulthood.
Click on The New York Times link to get the article.

Jamie Lee Curtis- Her Mom and Body Image

I remember when Jamie Lee Curtis posed unadorned and without make-up for a magazine shoot. It was both a brave and unusual step for both an actress or anyone being photographed for a national publication. Now she discusses her mother Janet Leigh's obsession with beauty and physical perfection in More Magazine. It makes sense that Jamie Lee Curtis was affected by her mother's need to maintain her "perfect" image. She says that while she loves her mother it was a very complicated relationshipr throughout her childhood.

School yard bully no longer stays in the yard.

Cyber bullying has changed the landscape of bullying. Children can no longer escape from the jeers and attacks by other children.
The worst part is that many kids won't tell their parents for fear of losing their access to the internet.
CyberSafeFamily offers parents good practical advice on how to keep their children safe. This is serious stuff! Victims of bullying are more than five times more vulnerable to suicide.

Yikes- parents lock up your kids!

I just watched the following youtube video with Lady Gaga with an adorable 15 year old girl and I can't figure out what to make of this. Is is exploitative? Is it an example of young women asserting their sexuality? Today's teenagers view Madonna as tame- how far will they push the envelope?
Parents must be confused. The most important thing for parents is for them to become very cyber savvy. Parents need to know what their children are looking at on the internet. They can't afford to be naive.
Watch TV with your children as well as spend some time letting them show you what interests them online. Most children want to connect with their parents. It's one of the best antidotes to the parts of culture that make us scared.

Girls are performing better than boys in school.

There is twice the chance that your son will be suspended as your daughter and three times the chance that he will be expelled.
While internationally it is usually the girls who lack the educational opportunities, boys are the ones who are falling behind. Colleges sometimes give special assistance to boys and 64% of the National Honor Society members are girls.One theory is that the world have become more verbal and "Boys Don't Talk." Nicholas Kristof discusses this problem in

The New York Times.

Is playtime over for kids?

Now everything is pre scheduled and gone are the days when kids could play at their friends' home, leave when they want and walk home. Children don't have the freedom to storm out and run home after a fight, they have to wait until a parent picks them up. The organic nature of socializing is lost when kids depend on adults to tell them when the playdate is over. Now even recess, the last arena for free play is being replaced or augmented with recess coaches.

At home young children are spending up to 28 hours a week on computers and other technology demonstrating that how they learn to negotiate the world from a very young age is very different from their parents' childhood. in The New York Times, David Elkind writes about how children are learning about the virtual world often at the expense of the social world.

New Health Care Policy for our Twentysomethings

Obama's health care reform acknowledges what many parents of twentysomethings already know. Our children represent a large percentage of the uninsured. Thirty percent of 19-29 year olds do not have health insurance and 75% receive financial assistance from their parents. Over five years ago when my 21 year old son had surgery at Georgetown Hospital, I asked a nurse why he was in the pediatric ICU after the procedure. She said they don't consider surgical patients adults at 21 years old. Researching our book

Mom Can I Move Back Home

we heard so many stories about young adults delaying many of the rites of passages until their early thirties. Ian Shapira's article in The Washington Post explores what we have been watching for over six years.