Parenting Children

A Newark NJ school district has apologized to a student and issued new yearbooks after they blacked out a picture of two boys kissing in all of the yearbooks.

In the photo, a student Andre Jackson is seen turning his head back over his right shoulder and kissing his boy friend who does not attend that school. It was blacked out after the district’s assistant superintendent who oversees the city’s high schools, was concerned that the photo could upset parents.

The photo was on a personal tribute page, that Andre Jackson paid for himself. Apparently the yearbook had pictures of heterosexual couples kissing throughout the book that were not blacked out.

I am not sure I would want my child’s yearbook to have any pictures of couples kissing, I don’t really think it is necessary. I guess if it were a personal page, which was paid for by the student, censoring it is not right. I personally have no problem. with same sex couples, or anyone showing affection in public, to a degree. I know that I would not like a picture blacked out of my yearbook, that I paid for, if it was an issue of a suggestive picture, it should have been brought up before the books went to press. The boy should have had the option to swap out the picture for one that was less “suggestive” if that was the problem.

What do you think about what the school district did? Do they owe the student a public apology?

newark schools, yearbook censored picture, teens, high school, gay teens

I am trying to get my kids to drink more water. As it is, their “juice” is 90% water and 10% juice. When we go to a restaurant I still water down their juice and if they ever get a sip before I can water it down, their eyes go as wide as saucers. “So this is what juice really tastes like”, I am sure they say to themselves.

I love water and I drink it every day, all day. My kids would rather drink juice, of course, but I was encouraged that those days would be over when the nice ladies of Hint sent me some water to try.

Voted best flavored water by Health magazine, hint is a water that is different from everything else you have tried. It has no sugar, no preservatives, no artificial sweeteners and zero calories. What could be better?
It just has a nice, natural, slight flavor to the water that your body needs and loves.

If you are looking for something different to drink for you or your family that is healthy, hint is perfect. Don’t see hint at a store near you? Don’t worry you can even buy it online!
Try all the great flavors, but my favorite is pomegranate-tangerine.

hint, flavored water, drinks for kids, kids, parenting, staying hydrated, parenting, parents

I have exciting news, if you read my post about child/infant CPR and you are looking to order a copy for yourself or as a gift, you are in luck.

Hurry and order your copy now to receive 10% off your order! Enter the coupon code: Tracy during checkout and enjoy 10% off.

CPR, infant CPR, child CPR, child safety, summer safety, pool dangers, CPR DVD, how to perform CPR, parents, parenting, children, kids, pools

Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 1 to 14.

Most happen in backyard pools or open water areas. Most drownings happen while children are being supervised. The SAFE KIDS study examined data from 496 child-drowning deaths from 2000 and 2001 from 17 states and found that 88 percent of the drowning victims were under supervision.

Children can drown in as little as one inch of water. That means that the bucket you have outside, your hot tub, toilet or wading pool are all potential dangers. “Two minutes following submersion, a child will lose consciousness. Irreversible brain damage occurs after four to six minutes and determines the immediate and long-term survival of a child. The majority of children who survive (92 percent) are discovered within two minutes following submersion, and most children who die (86 percent) are found after 10 minutes. Nearly all who require cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) die or are left with severe brain injury.”

Do you feel confident about performing CPR? Could you do it accurately? What about your teenage babysitter or your neighbor?
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My children are new to the world of games. They have a V Smile learning game system that they can play once in a while and they have a few board games that we play together. They love to play especially my daughter who perfectly sets up the board and places the cards in neat piles.

Last night after dinner, we played a rousing game of Candy Land, one of my favorites. A couple of turns into it, my daughter got a card with a dot on it, which means (for you non C.L. playing people) you have to stay on that color until you pick another card with that same color on it. She denied that was what it was.
Keep in mind she has played this game about 50 times and knows the rules, she just didn’t want to stay on the blue square.

Then she tried to cheat again, at which point I told her, it was ok if she didn’t win, you can’t win every time and the game was still young. Look at me I am all the way at the end and I am not crying. I explained that nobody likes to play with a poor loser or winner.

On one hand she is only four, she wants to win, I get that. Her twin brother wants to win too, but he is not crying. Should I look the other way when she cheats? Should I make sure to catch her cheating and tell her to stop it? If everyone looks the other way when a child cheats to win or only plays games they know they will win, I think that is a great disservice to my child. In the real world nobody will do that for them.
Winning is great but just playing the game is also just as great.

Moms, please help me out!

kids, preschoolers, children, families, kid’s games, board games, parenting, parenting kids, parenting twins, twins, moms

I remember taking my kids to a movie, and I was so mad that in this cartoon movie for children words like stupid and name calling were peppered throughout.
If a movie is geared toward children it doesn’t automatically mean that it is appropriate for kids of all ages. I found out the hard way. I mean what if you never saw Bambi and thought it was a sweet, light tale of a young deer with no cares in the world? I know to this day I will never watch Dumbo again, it made me so sad.

Now there is www.kids-in-mind.com. It is a web site that has a movie rating system which allows you as the parent to read about the movie and decide if it is something you want your child to view, what the message of the movie is and if there is strong language or substance abuse. Information that the traditional MPAA rating system doesn’t let you know.

While some movies may have a low sex and violence rating it may have a higher “gore” factor. The site has new release movies as well as older movies you can rent on video.

I think it is a terrific resource for parents, who don’t always have the time to research the movie and themes, this site allows you to do that quickly and thoroughly. I know I will be using it in the future, especially with free movie days this summer.

movies, movie ratings, movies for kids, parenting, kids, children, teens, family movies, movie rating system

One of the things my husband and I would do BK (before kids) was pick berries in the summer at local markets.
This summer we will all be picking berries as a family. It is something to do when you don’t have plans on the weekend or something for mom to do with the kids during the week. Look here for local you pick it farms in your area.

Include your children in what to do with the berries or fruit once it is picked. Make a pie together, a fruit salad or fruit pancakes for breakfast the next day. If your kids pick it and then participate in making something they will be more apt to eat the fruit.

I know I can go broke on fruit in this house, my kids love it as much as I do. If you don’t have any local you pick it farms, try this web site to see where the local farmers markets are near you. I know on weekend my local farmers markets have live music and some people even sell crafts. It is a great lazy weekend morning thing to do with the entire family.

summer, summer fun, berry picking, farmers market, children, teens, kids, parenting, moms, SAHM, dads, weekend fun

Today, Friday May 25th is National Missing Children’s day. Every day children in this country goes missing. I know we all think of missing children as abducted by a stranger but parental abduction is the leading cause of missing children accounting for over 78% of all child abductions.

This Friday lets all strive to keep the children in our lives safe. Get a free missing child care kit, for the worst case scenario this information in a safe place may help police locate your child.

Teens and tweens are not altogether safe either, get a free internet safety kit.
Half of teens 13-18 have communicated online with someone they have never met.
One third have talked about meeting in person someone they only know online.
One in 10 have learned that someone communicating with them online was an adult pretending to be much younger.

Talk to your children about strangers, about how to dial 911 in an emergency and to trust their instincts about adults.

missing children, national missing children’s day, parenting, teens, internet predators, keeping kids safe, online safety

Last week I was watching TV and flipping around and I stopped on The Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert was interviewing Conn Iggulden on his new book The Dangerous Book for Boys written by Conn and his brother, Hal.
I found it fascinating, a book filled with things for boys (or girls!) to do that give me gray hair just thinking about it.

Really when we were children or our parents were children for that matter, summer time was when kids would be at their most “dangerous”. Climbing over rusty old fences, jumping of the roof into the pool, running with sticks and riding our bikes wherever and whenever we wanted just as long as we were home by dinner. After dinner we would go out and do it all over again, but it was even better because it was in the dark.

Would I let me kids do that now? Absolutely not. First they are too young to even be in our backyard by themselves, but after I told my kids they could not play on the play set we have in flip flops, I wondered, have I gone too far?

Is my paranoia about scraped knees, grass stained clothes, whether or not I can see them every second at the park and if they are wearing their helmet every time they are on anything that has wheels, about me as a mother or a media induced craze where everything is dangerous for my child?

Kids fall down, they get hurt it is a part of life. The book is filled with cool things for kids to do before we bought pre-made forts and took all of the imagination out of it. It is filled with cool stuff like how to make different knots, how to make a tree fort, to write in invisible ink and skimming stones. It also has facts that everyone should know like the names of cloud formations, common American trees and the timeline of American history.

I wonder if the Dangerous Book for Boys would let me loosen the reigns a little, let my children be children and not worry so much.
Nah, but I will still buy this book for my dangerous boy and girl.

The Dangerous Book for Boys, sons, boys, summer time, summer, dangerous kids, parenting, moms, dads, Conn Iggulden, Hal Iggulden