NewsTrust - Parenting - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Why Parents Help Tweens Violate Facebook's 13+ Rule

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Danah Boyd - Nov. 01 (Opinion) - "At what age should I let my child join Facebook?" This is a question that countless parents have asked my collaborators and me. Often, it's followed by the following: "I know that 13 is the minimum age to join Facebook, but is it really so bad that my 12-year-old is on the site?" While parents are struggling to determine what social media sites are appropriate for their children, government tries to help parents by regulating what data internet companies can collect about children without parental permission. Yet, as has been the case for the last decade, this often backfires. Many general-purpose communication platforms and social media sites restrict access to only those 13+ in response to a law meant to empower parents: the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This forces parents to make a difficult choice: help uphold the minimum age requirements and limit their children's access to services that let kids connect with family and friends OR help their children lie about their age to circumvent the age-based restrictions and eschew the protections that COPPA is meant to provide.

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Combating Gay Teen Suicide: What Parents Can Do

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Dr. Harold Koplewicz - Oct. 14 (Opinion) - Over the past few weeks it has been impossible to miss the flood of news stories about gay teens ending their own lives after enduring anti-gay bullying. Eighteen-year-old Tyler Clementi, 15-year-old Billy Lucas, and 13-year-olds Asher Brown and Seth Walsh were living in different corners of America -- New Jersey, Indiana, Texas, and California -- but each of them was subjected to the same kind of intolerance and cruelty, which included callous disregard for their online privacy.

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'Live Through This'

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By Katharine Mieszkowski, Debra Gwartney - Mar. 07 (Interview) - In "Live Through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love," Gwartney relives the private desperation and shame of being a mother whose teenage daughters disappear for days at a time, only dropping in occasionally when no one else is home to stock up on supplies, leaving empty beer cans, fetid clothes, empty cigarette boxes and puddles of brilliant Manic Panic hair dye behind. As the girls' absences stretch to weeks and months, Gwartney recalls her frantic searches for them, first in Eugene and then in San Francisco. Along the way, she delves into her own culpability in the family dynamic that drove them away.

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Helping our Children

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

KPFK.org - By Tim Carpenter - Feb. 05 (Interview) - [Interview with the guests listed below] KATHRYN HALL TRUJILLO - Kathryn founded the Birthing Project, an organization that recreates pregnancy for black women in America by giving them the support that only a true peer and community member can provide. For more information on Kathryn, go to http://www.birthingprojectusa.com/. TERRIE ROSE - Terrie founded Baby's Space, an organization that delivers her model of quality child care and early childhood development grounded in the perspective of infants and young children and reflective of the context of their families and communities. To find out more about Terrie, go to http://www.babyspace.org/. ILL VIALET - Jill founded Sports4Kids with the realization that play is fundamental to academic achievement and social growth, and that inner-city children most in need of a safe place to play are the least likely to find it at school. Sports4Kids provides schools with a comprehensive recreation program that taps community resources to meet the needs of disadvantaged children. For more information on Jill, go to http://www.sports4kids.org/.

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Happiness is being socially connected

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Greater Good - By Christine Carter - Nov. 02 (Review) - The upshot of 50 years of happiness research is that the quantity and quality of a person’s social connections—friendships, relationships with family members, closeness to neighbors, etc.—is so closely related to well-being and personal happiness the two can practically be equated. People with many friendships are less likely to experience sadness, loneliness, low self-esteem, and problems with eating and sleeping.

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The Circus: Sadist Show on Earth?

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Joel Schwartzberg - Jun. 27 (Opinion) - Great and FUNNY post about one father's trip to the circus and how it made him think twice about both animal treatment and people treatment. [Disclosure: this story was submitted by its author]

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Tom Davis: Get Paid, Get Plucked

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Jun. 20 (Opinion) - Lately, I've felt so plucked, I've felt like chicken feed.

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Maria Sue Chapman, R.I.P. (2003-2008)

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Michelle Malkin - By Michelle Malkin - May. 22 (Opinion) - Contemporary Christian singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman's five-year-old adopted daughter, Maria Sue, died Wednesday when her teen-age brother accidentally ran over her as he backed the family's car out of their driveway. Chapman's music and life have been inspired by, and centered on, faith and family. His oldest daughter, Emily, encouraged Chapman and his wife to adopt after having three of their own natural-born children; the couple adopted three beautiful girls from China. They performed missionary work in Chinese orphanages and established a charity named after their first adopted daughter, Shoahannah. At the time the accident occurred, the family "was celebrating the engagement of the oldest daughter Emily Chapman, and were just hours away from a graduation party marking Caleb Chapman's completion of high school. Now, they are preparing to bury a child who blew out 5 candles on a birthday cake less than 10 days ago." Maria Sue had just graduated from church preschool.

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Can Miley Turn This Thing Around?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Michelle Renee - Apr. 29 (Opinion) - Can the Hannah Montana starlet turn the recent negative buzz into a positive? The answer is yes, if she wants to.

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Raising Optimistic Kids

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Greater Good - By Christine Carter - Apr. 22 (Opinion) - This post explains a little more about what it means to be optimistic or pessimistic and so that we parents can better foster optimism in our kids. Martin Seligman has been doing research on optimism for decades, and his book The Optimistic Child is a great resource for parents. According to Seligman and other researchers, how optimistic or pessimistic we are amounts to how we explain life's events, be they good or bad. There are three basic dimensions to an explanation: permanence, pervasiveness, and personalization. The OPTIMISITIC way of understanding why something GOOD happened would explain:

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The Benefits of Optimism

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Greater Good - By Christine Carter - Apr. 08 (Review) - Are our children hopeful? Do they expect good in the world? That things will work out for the best? Optimism is so closely related to happiness that the two can practically be equated. And guess what: optimism is a teachable skill. Hope, faith and optimism are all positive emotions about the future, and so are essential parts of a happy childhood. That is enough for me, but if a happy childhood isn't your first priority for your kids, think about these other benefits reaped by optimistic children. Compared to pessimistic people, optimists are:tools-icon-book.gif * More successful in school, at work, and in athletics * They are healthier and they live longer * They are more satisfied with their marriages * They are less likely to suffer from depression * They are less anxious

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McCain: The Myth of The "Moderate Maverick"

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Common Dreams - Feb. 06 (Statement) - "John McCain has a 25-year record of voting against women's freedom and privacy, and he has even gone so far as to call for the overturn of Roe v. Wade," Keenan said. "Despite McCain's documented record of hostility toward a woman's right to choose, the intense criticism he's getting from Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing talking heads is fueling the myth that McCain is a 'moderate maverick.' When it comes to choice, McCain is neither a moderate nor a maverick. He's just plain wrong.

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Cross-reference: GoodWiki-GreaterGood

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Greater Good - Feb. 03 (Review) - This page is an annotated cross reference between the Topic Pages of GoodWiki and articles and sources in Greater Good Magazine and the Greater Good Blog.

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Contrary to AP Report, Single Parents Do Not Murder Their Children and Bury Them in Cement

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 08:49:46 -0800

Huffington Post - By Bella DePaulo - Nov. 18 (Opinion) - Did you see the recent AP report with the ominous opening paragraph? Remember the 6-year old who was beaten to death then buried in cement? The 2-year old who was thrown across a room and died? It was a lengthy article, but the conclusion was up-front: "an ever-increasing share of American children grow up in homes without both biological parents," and "the risk of child abuse is markedly higher in the nontraditional family structures." Children in single-parent households are obviously in homes without both biological parents, and their family structures are nontraditional, so they must be the ones at risk for getting pummeled to death, right? Well, no, but don't expect to figure that out from the AP story.

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Mothering mantras

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 17:40:53 -0700

BlogHer - By Mir - Sep. 13 (Opinion) - Anyone who's ever been responsible for the care and upkeep of another human being knows that the inherent challenges in doing so can be enough to unhinge even the most grounded of souls. We all have our tips and tricks for coping. For me? It's all about the mantras, baby.

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Team Moms for Modesty

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:43:58 -0700

BlogHer - By Mary Tsao - Sep. 06 (Opinion) - Mothers of daughters, is your daughter a cold blooded man eater? How do you feel about your daughter wearing a T-shirt that invites the world to Bite Me?

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All around the globe, moms find common ground

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 16:31:51 -0700

BlogHer - By Mir - Aug. 13 (Opinion) - Most of the blogs I read are American, and I've found myself actively seeking out ones that are not, because I'd started feeling sort of lazy and ethnocentric. There's a whole world out there! And the internet brings it right to my desk! Time to branch out a little! While it is likely true that there are plenty of commonalities in the human experience, across cultures, it is undeniably true that the commonalities across the parenting experience transcend location and culture in a way that little else does.

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