NewsTrust - Parenting - Most Recent Stories: Opinion

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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Opinion: Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By LZ Granderson - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - I saw someone at the airport the other day who really caught my eye...Yeah, that 8-year-old girl was something to see all right... I hope her parents are proud. Their daughter was the sexiest girl in the terminal, and she's not even in middle school yet.

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Fixes: Mothers-to-Be Are Getting the Message

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:53:57 -0800

New York Times - By By DAVID BORNSTEIN - Feb. 07 (Opinion) - A free service, text4baby, delivers crucial health advice via text message to pregnant women and new mothers.

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In Defense of the Western Mom

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Ayelet Waldman - Jan. 15 (Opinion) - Here are some of the things that my four children of a Jewish mother were always allowed to do: • Quit the piano and the violin, especially if their defeatist attitude coincided with a recital, thus saving me from the torture of listening to other people's precious children soldier through hackneyed pieces of the juvenile repertoire, plink after ever more unbearable plonk. • Sleep over at their friends' houses, especially on New Year's Eve or our anniversary, thus saving us the cost of a babysitter. • Play on the computer and surf the Internet, so long as they paid for their Neopet Usuki dolls and World of Warcraft abomination cleavers out of their own allowances. • Participate in any extracurricular activity they wanted, so long as I was never required to drive farther than 10 minutes to get them there, or to sit on a field in a folding chair in anything but the balmiest weather for any longer than 60 minutes. • Quit said extracurricular activities, especially if their quitting coincided with league finals that might have demanded participation on my part exceeding the requirements stated above. In the days since this newspaper published Amy Chua's simultaneously entertaining and infuriating excerpt from her new book, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," my two elder children, 16 and 13, have devoted a remarkable amount of time to raging against the essay and crafting compelling and bombastic rebuttals to be delivered to Ms. Chua herself, should they ever encounter her.

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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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Personal Health: From Birth, Engage Your Child With Talk

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jane E. Brody - Sep. 29 - All too often, mothers and nannies are tuned in to their cellphones, BlackBerrys and iPods, not their young children.

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Op-Ed Columnist - Bristol Palin’s New Gig

Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Gail Collins - May. 07 (Opinion) - But when a teenager goes out on this kind of mission, you have to wonder where her parents’ heads were. What does this say about Sarah Palin’s judgment? Although we’ve sort of answered that question before

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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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Octuplets mom wants $2 million for story. And a TV show? | The Dish Rag

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By elizabeth Snead - Feb. 03 (Editorial) - The mother of 14 kids is asking for $2 million for her octuplets story. Oh, and she would also like a TV career as a child-care expert. Wow. How about scam artist instead? The divorced working mom lives in her parents' three-bedroom house in Whittier, Calif.

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Click and Jane

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Virginia Heffernan - Feb. 01 (Comment) - “Did you like this book?” asks the computer. It’s a customer-satisfaction question, but it seems more profound than that. We hesitate. Ben, my 3-year-old son, shoots me a puzzled look. The answer should be yes. Ben enjoys what’s on the screen right now: Starfall, an online medley of free learn-to-read activities. But he doesn’t like the question. “It’s not a book,” he explains, emphatically, to the laptop. “It’s more like a movie or a video.” Oh, God. I knew it.

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A little reality

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Dan Kennedy - Dec. 02 (Opinion) - We are under no illusions about the challenges Becky faces. She's four-foot-one, and, at 16-years-old, is about as tall as she's going to get. Her arms are disproportionately short. She waddles. But though her genome is imperfect, she, Becky, is perfect just the way she is.

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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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Tempering Toddler Tantrums Now May Prevent Aggression Later

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Stefanie Reinberger - Nov. 01 (Review) - * Occasional tantrums are normal for children during the first three years of life, as increasing independence collides with emotional and verbal immaturity. * Frequent rage attacks, together with unusually aggressive or self-destructive behavior, however, may augur more serious behavior issues, including a propensity toward violence. * Genetic factors play a role in overly aggressive behavior in toddlers as do language delays, smoking during pregnancy, socioeconomic factors and certain parenting styles. Countering such contributors may help curtail the number of youths who become chronically violent.

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Gifted Children: How to Bring Out Their Potential

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - Aug. 19 (Opinion) - Highly gifted children solve the most varied thought problems faster and more thoroughly than those with more average aptitudes do. Because these children speed through the regular curriculum for their grade, they need additional intellectual stimulation while they wait for the rest of the kids to learn the basics. Two central approaches are used to satisfy the educational needs of such children: acceleration and enrichment. Acceleration means studying material that is part of the standard curriculum for older students. Enrichment involves learning information that falls outside the usual curriculum--say, investigating a topic in greater depth or finding out about new topics.

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The Beijing she knew is gone; in its place, the Beijing she loves

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Ching-Ching Ni - Aug. 03 (Opinion) - I was born in a Beijing that has vanished. The way my mother tells it, I forced my way into the world a month early so my birthday would forever be associated with the biggest political festival of the year. ... It was the early autumn of 1968, and as revelers shouted "Long live Chairman Mao," my parents raced to a hospital during a massive parade commemorating the birth of communist China. As my mother screamed in pain, fireworks lighted the sky over Tiananmen Square.

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Family Planning: Striking Plan B

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - Jul. 16 (Editorial) - The Bush administration continues its fight to prevent women from accessing birth control. According to The New York Times, a new proposal would require that clinics and hospitals receiving government aid under health programs "certify that they will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and (emphasis ours) even certain types of birth control." The proposal also takes issue with state laws forcing hospitals to provide rape victims with emergency contraception, a form of birth control also known by its brand name, Plan B.

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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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Obama's call for parenting

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - Jun. 17 (Opinion) - "You and I know how true this is in the African American community," Obama said, speaking at a Chicago church more theologically conservative than the Trinity United Church of Christ he recently left. "We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled - doubled - since we were children."

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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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Why Children Curse

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

NPR - By Allison Aubrey - Mar. 27 (Review) - No one expects a 3-year-old who loves to dress like a princess to swear like a sailor. But early exposure is not so uncommon. Who's to blame? Well, there's a pretty apt quote from a 1970 Pogo cartoon: "We have met the enemy, and he is us." The "us" are parents. A few weeks ago, I put a question out to hundreds of mothers on a local list-serv asking for anecdotes about the first time they heard their children use inappropriate words.

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