Everyday Affair

According to a recent news report, 34% of people in the U.S. are overweight, with an additional 33% considered obese! This means that just a third of us are of ‘normal’ weight. These statistics include people of all ages, including kids. No wonder everyone seems to be on a perpetual diet, with dozens of best selling books on weight loss programs and entire corporations dedicated to weight loss products and programs. It’s clear that parents, for the sake of their kid’s health, need to formulate a child obesity prevention program, beginning in grade school.

Just a few decades ago, you hardly ever saw a child who looked overweight. In fact, kids were most often considered scrawny, until they were well into their teens and started filling out and gaining weight. Today, children who are scrawny are few and far between. Now, kids still in grade school are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes used to be a condition which didn’t develop until at least middle age. Being overweight is a risk factor for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, along with a host of other health conditions, including heart disease.

It’s not difficult to figure out why a child obesity prevention program is necessary. What has caused this epidemic of overweight and obese kids? A brief look back in recent history and American eating patterns provides some clear answers.

During the Great Depression, people had a hard time putting sufficient food on the table. As a result, there were very few overweight people. Kids were thin, as a rule and remained so into their adult years. The next generation of kids, while growing taller and generally being better nourished, still did not develop weight problems at an early age. What we now call ‘whole’ foods, that is, unprocessed foods which did not contain excessive amounts of salt and sugar, hormones, antibiotics and food additives, were the healthy foods served every day. More »

February 19th, 2009 | Category: Behavour, Parenting, Teen Issues | Leave a comment

Alcohol abuse has traditionally been an adult problem, bringing devastating problems to families. Unfortunate as this might have been, we are now faced with an epidemic of adolescent alcohol abuse. Fully half of our children, from the grade school level through high school, have sampled alcoholic beverages in any given month. This startling statistic must surely grab the attention of every responsible adult.

While illegal drugs are now readily available, even in grade schools, it should not be so shocking that adolescent alcohol abuse is also a widespread problem. Unlike prescription and street drugs, alcohol is legal and readily available in most people’s homes. While you, as a parent, may have a stock of alcoholic beverages in your home bar inventory, you might never imagine that your kids are imbibing.

You certainly must worry about the drug culture going on in every school, but may not realize how far down this reaches, even to the grade school level. By the time your child reaches middle school, you can be sure that they are exposed to alcohol and drugs. Peer pressure plays a big role in fostering a desire to ‘be cool’ and experiment with both alcohol and drugs. Drugs may scare off some kids, but alcohol is a socially sanctioned, legal, ‘recreational’ step into the world of adult privileges.

Kids don’t seem to distinguish between alcohol and drugs, except that drugs are illegal, while alcohol is not. Perhaps this is why adolescent alcohol abuse is on the rise. “My parents drink, so why shouldn’t I try it?” is a common refrain. More »

February 19th, 2009 | Category: American, Behavour, Parenting, Teen Issues | Leave a comment

Your children learn to walk, talk, and relate by watching you. What some parents do not realize is that they are going to learn all about what couple relationships are, as they move through childhood to adulthood, from watching their parents. You have to stop and think about what you are showing your children and what they are learning from it. If you are making mistakes, that does not mean you are a bad parent, it just means you did not realize how much they really pick up and learn from you. They are going to have what you have in a relationship, so be picky.

How you act as a couple is going to be unique from any other couple relationships. No two people are the same, so no two relationships are ever going to be the same. Single parents have to think about this when they bring someone new into the home. It is going to have the same impact. Children are going to learn what they should and should not expect and put up with in couple relationships based on how you and your significant other treat each other. That seems like a lot of pressure, but there are some basic things you can do.

There is always going to be disagreements and fighting in couple relationships. It is impossible for two people to be with each other for any length of time and agree on everything. What you have to think about is how you fight things out. If you shout and throw things, your children are going to think that is how you are supposed to act when you disagree, and if they grow up and meet someone like that for their relationships, they are going to accept that as that is how things are supposed to be. Take your fighting where your children can not hear it, and learn to negotiate to eliminate at least most of that shouting. More »

February 17th, 2009 | Category: Behavour, Relationship | Leave a comment

When joyful parents welcome a new baby into their lives, love is everywhere! You haven’t yet had an opportunity to sit back and reflect, in real time, just what it takes to be a responsible parent. Being a responsible parent entails teaching your children self discipline, which can be a road fraught with headaches and frantic calls to family and friends. “Why is she sitting in the middle of the floor, pounding her fists and crying to stop the band? All I said was no to a cookie!” Ah, it’s about as this point that you realize that you’ve got to have a discipline strategy that works, serves to ease your child into the real world and keeps your child in a loving cloud of parental comfort. Hey, has someone written a book on this?

When it comes to children and discipline issues, you’ve got to get a jump on the discipline side, beginning at an early age. This doesn’t mean babies and infants. Such young ones will benefit from lots of love, hugs and kisses; forming that close bond early, with no negative impact or feedback, goes a long way towards a more rationale relationship once your little angel reaches the ‘terrible twos’.

When your baby is still, just a baby, dependent on you for everything, the looming issue of children and discipline doesn’t appear above your radar. You’re enjoying the moment, which is as it should be. However, you do need to think into the future. Once your little angel discovers his or her own power over his environment – and you – you either need to have taken steps to learn about child development stages, along with the inevitable children and discipline questions, or get to the library or book store for some fast counsel!

There’s really no need to panic, should you find yourself unprepared. You’ve been able to savor that unique period of a child’s life, where discipline has no place. It’s when they start spreading their wings, in ways that they can be injured, or socially impaired, that it’s time for you to step in and take on your responsibilities. More »

February 17th, 2009 | Category: Behavour, Teen Issues | Leave a comment

While a majority of states in the U.S. currently have a version of the ‘three-strikes and you’re out’ legislation in place, the California three strikes law is most severe in both interpretation and penalties. Enacted in 1994, Proposition 184, was approved by 72% of California voters. A person convicted of a third felony faces life imprisonment. With the specific provisions of the California three strikes law, certain cases have grabbed headlines nationally and internationally, citing this law as far too severe.

You may think that such repeat criminals with felony convictions, should be incarcerated for life. Many people, when they think of a felony crime, assume this must mean murder, violence or heinous acts have been committed. This is not the case. While other state’s three strike laws require that each of the three crimes are of a violent nature before the life sentence is imposed, California makes it mandatory that a life sentence be imposed on a person convicted of a third felony crime, regardless of whether the third crime was violent or not. The criteria used in the California three strikes law only requires that the first two be violent, or more ambiguously, ‘serious’ in nature.

You may have heard of the California man who was sentenced to life after stealing a piece of pizza from a group of kids. His previous record included one violent assault and four others of a non-violent nature. Does this man truly deserve life in prison? His case caused such an uproar in the public, that the man’s sentence was eventually reduced to six years.

Another problem with the California three strikes law is that the defendant may rack up his quota of three felonies in a single incident. You’ve doubtless heard the phrase, ‘throwing the book at him’. This is a strategy often employed by prosecutors in order to have the defendant agree to a plea deal, where some charges are dropped if the defendant pleads guilty to one or two others. The prosecutor may know that some of the other charges won’t fly in court, perhaps due to lack of evidence. The defendant, faced with a multiplicity of charges, true or not, may realize he’ll do less time by taking the deal. In doing so, he may be setting himself up, in certain respects, for a future of life imprisonment, should he commit another felony. More »

February 17th, 2009 | Category: American, Legal Matters | Leave a comment

Our parents care for and love us until we are old enough to go out on our own. Though we don’t always know how to show our appreciation, we learn as we go through life how much they really did for us, especially after we have our own children. There may come a time when the roles are reversed, as much as we don’t like to think about it. As they age, we may find that we have to care for them, or at the very least, make decisions about their care when we can not do it on our own. Caring for the elderly is never easy, especially when they are your own parents.

Though some joke and say caring for the elderly is much like caring for a baby, that is usually not the case. Some do develop conditions like dementia or have debilitating strokes that render them unable to communicate their needs and wants, or unable to think about much of anything. In that sense, elder care can be somewhat like caring for a baby, but many older people have full capacity for thought and speech. It is their bodies that fail them. More »

January 27th, 2009 | Category: American, General, Relationship | Leave a comment

It is easy to get depressed and anxious about the problems that we are encountering in our society. We read the headlines in the paper and listen to the news reports and it seems like the entire world is falling down around us. Unfortunately the media does not do a very good job of reporting the good things that are occurring on a daily basis. I know that there are good things that occur on a regular basis because I am an educator and I see the young adults that I work with do special things all the time. The media stands in line to report about a youth that carries a gun into a school, but they take no notice of three students that will carry a fellow paralyzed student up a flight of bleachers so they can watch a basketball game. When I have talked to members of the media about this they report to me that feel good stories do not sell papers or get viewers.

The school setting that I teach in is quite diverse. The main focus we have with our students is respect. Respect yourself, respect other students and respect each other’s differences. I believe that in order to respect others you need to understand them and they’re believes. I spend a great deal of time talking about the various cultures that are prevalent in our school. This month we are concentrating on African American history. I involve the students in the lesson plans. Three students are going to present the African American history of their particular families. The neat thing is that these students did not know the full story until they began working on the project. They are learning things about their great grandparents that they never knew before. All students are involved in each segment that we do. Those students that are not African Americans will report on a more general topic having to do with African American history. The purpose is not only to have a better understanding of each other’s past and culture, but to realize that most cultures have common elements. The Native American students and the Hispanic students will realize that some of the celebrations they practice within their culture are done for similar reasons. More »

January 27th, 2009 | Category: American, General | Leave a comment

Everyone has, at one time or another, found that they’ve made a rash decision they lived to regret. While some of these decisions may be of a minor nature, they might just as easily be major, with major consequences. You might feel the repercussions immediately, or they might come back to bite you somewhere down the road. Let’s take a look at a formula for better decision making that can save you time, money and those inevitable consequences of the rash decision.

1.Being objective is a primary goal. For example, let’s say you’re buying a car. You find one that seems to be exactly what you want. It’s a beautiful, sporty model in just the color you desire. The seller presents maintenance records and you decide to take it on the spot, without a mechanical inspection. This is an impulsive purchase, based on your desire to have the car. What do you do when the car’s transmission falls out a week later?

2.This brings us to our second point of better decision making processes. Leave your emotions at the door when trying to make a decision. Basing your decisions on emotional input does not usually bring the best result. Had you left a good faith deposit for our car purchase noted above, and brought in a mechanic, you might have been emotionally disappointed, but you’d have saved a lot of money.

3.When you’re trying to arrive at a sound decision, it’s a good idea to make a list of the objectives of the ideal solution. Let’s say you need to downsize your budget. Without a list of what you hope to achieve, you may rashly decide to cancel a credit card, instead of examining other areas of your budget that might be better candidates for cancellation. Here’s what a better decision making process would have revealed. Canceling your satellite service and your weekly dinner out might just provide the money you need. The credit card can be used for emergencies. Now what? You can always reinstate your satellite service and resume the Friday dinners out, but it may not be so easy to get another credit card. More »

January 22nd, 2009 | Category: Behavour, General | Leave a comment

Children everywhere enjoy being scared within the safe environment of watching a TV show. Entertaining horror stories for kids are difficult to write but the Are You Afraid Of the Dark series was very well received. Its successful run was for seven seasons, running from 1990 until 2000.

The basis of the show was a group of adolescent friends that call themselves The Midnight Society. Each episode finds them sat round a secretly located campfire in the woods, taking it in turn to tell each other scary tales. These stories never overstep the mark of what is an acceptable fright story for a child and they stay away from anything graphic. A typical plot would involve a haunted house, magic curses, witches, aliens, or ghosts. The episodes would conclude with a happy ending, at least for the main cast.

The storytelling group included Ross Hull as Gary, Jodie Resther as Kiki, Rachel Blanchard as Kristen, Kareem Blackwell as Quinn, and Daniel DeSanto as Tucker.
In addition to the regulars in Are You Afraid of the Dark, there were recurring characters, such as Sardo, who owned a magic shop that the children frequent. Another character was Dr.Vink, who was portrayed as a mad scientist.

For anyone who missed the original run or for those who want to indulge in nostalgia, there are DVDs available of the series. The complete seasons are all there and feature bonus features of episode synopses. The sixth season DVD also has a photo gallery from that season. There is also a compilation of eight episodes called Are You Afraid of the Dark? – Freaky Favorites. Fans of the show can also announce their loyalty with a Midnight Society T-shirt. The fan base isn’t confined to the United States, as re-runs of the shows are watched in the UK, Australia, the Czech Republic and in Latin countries. More »

January 22nd, 2009 | Category: American, Behavour, Parenting | Leave a comment