Karen Alley, The Daily Post. As web editor, Karen blogs every day about news and events that are going on either in our area or on a national realm. Bringing together hot topics with local ties is what keeps her perspective on the news interesting.
Renee, Teen-dom Tales, provides a look into the life of a mom of a teen, a stage of life that brings with it a whole new realm of parenting challenges.
Stephanie, Mamma Said, writes witty and insightful posts chronicling the development of her two young boys, ages 5 and 3. As a Greensboro resident, they're out and about at locales around the Triad quite often, and she also brings in the working mom perspective at times, with her part time job.
Lisa, The Single Mom's Soliloquy, adds a different spin on parenting as she writes about the issues, challenges and joys of raising a teenage daughter as a single mom. Her look at life in the new world order of blended families and split families is refreshing and sometimes controversial.
Heather Maggs, of The Time Out Corner, presents a humorous blog on the roller coaster life of a stay-at-home mom of a toddler.
Myra Wright, familiar to you as our editor, also blogs inPiedmont Ponderings. It's a great outlet for her creative sense of humor, and she brings some great perspective to life in King as the mother of three kids.
It might seem pretty ironic, but even with news of layoffs and businesses closing, Winston-Salem was just ranked 18th in the nation in Forbes Magazine's latest list of the Best Places for Businesses and Careers, and Greensboro-High Point wasn't too far behind, at 41.
This is great news for local families. The survey looked at a variety of factors, including crime rate, college attainment and the cost of living in the area. Which means that as a parent, I'm once again reassured that the Triad is a great choice of where to live to raise a family. It's relatively safe, affordable, and thanks to this investigative look by Forbes, there's an outlook of future growth that's comforting in today's economic climate.
We've even got a pretty good prospect for careers, considering the great list of companies that made up Carolina Parenting's own list, the 2008 Family Friendly 40. There were so many companies that provided great benefits to make the work/life balance better for parents that we decided to expand it this year to the Family Friendly 50. Nominations are still being accepted, so if you're excited about what your employer is doing to help make your life easier, nominate them today!
Of course, if you're feeling the stress of working fewer hours, or have had to deal with a family member losing a job, the silver lining in this gray cloud is hard to spot. But there have been lots of job fairs in the area, and there's another planned for later this month, which means some companies are hiring even now.
If your career took a path you weren't expecting, maybe now's the time to think about going back to school. We recently published the 2009 College Guide, and the information in it isn't just applicable to rising seniors, but anyone interested in college in our area.
It's always nice to hear a little good news, and maybe for our area, this means things are starting to make a turn for the better.
I use the Internet so much now that it almost seems prehistoric that in college, some of my professors outlawed it when it came to research. They claimed that since "anyone" could post things online, it was too risky to use what you read for qualified research unless you did further research to find out who was writing it and what their background was.
The Internet has become huge, and there are tons of great resources out there for parents, including WebMD, KidsHealth.com, our site of course, and the hundreds of news outlets. But the truth is, you still have to be careful what you read and make sure you know all the details and the background.
Here are a couple more recent examples.
Just a few weeks ago, big-time media outlets picked up on a survey done by Parent Center that claimed "moms are mad at dad" to the point that it affects mom's health. A few days later, other news outlets reported this whole survey was just "junk science," with results based on only 1,000 results from "SLOP," a Self-selected Listener Opinion Poll.
Another one: Googling a Gamble. When it comes to looking up symptoms online, turns out you need to be really careful about what you find. Make sure the facts you're reading are researched, and get a medical opinion for anything serious, because symptoms you type in might lead to some rare disease when really your kid just has a slight rash.
So what should we learn from all this, as parents? Definitely still use the Internet. It's fast, there's tons of information out there, and in many ways it's the best, quickest form of communication these days. But keep in mind at all times what your high school teachers and college professors told you, about whatever source you were using for research: always know who wrote the study, who funded it, and be careful to read the fine-print details about things like how many people were studied and how they were picked. When it comes to our kids' health and well being, you can never be too vigilant.
No, it's not St. Patrick's Day. Our kids are greener because they're starting to become environmental activists. This Saturday the world will honor Earth Hour from 8:30-9:30 p.m. Something that started as just Sydney, Australia making an event in 2007 has now grown to more than 2,800 cities participating this year.
In North Carolina, the only city that's announced participation is Lincolnton, and that's thanks to the local high school kids who made a presentation to the city council to get their city to honor the hour. Earth Hour is designated as a time to turn out the lights (or dim them in the city) to raise awareness for climate change and how it's affecting us.
It's great to see news of kids taking action to make changes in how our world does things. And just turning the lights off isn't the only step. Want to help your kids become better environmental stewards? Check out our article "Raising a Greener Generation" for tips on recycling, water conservation and green shopping ideas.
Tomorrow night, Guilford County School Superintendent Mo Green will be presenting two of his four proposed regional maps to the school board. His plan for regional reorganization was approved at the last meeting, and now the board is getting to the logistics of the plan.
I didn't go to school in Guilford County, and to be honest, when I began living here as an adult and started immersing myself in the education culture in preparation for having kids, it seemed almost cumbersome to have such a big school district, with High Point having such different needs than Northwest Greensboro, and so on. Mo's plan doesn't have anything to do with where kids go to school or redistricting. It's just implementing some regional offices to deal with things like discipline and transportation, and open up the lines of communication even better between parents and school officials. You can read more about his ideas on his own blog.
Of course, with any new school plan comes controversy, and there are definitely some voices of opposition out there, as you can see on the News & Record's Chalkboard.
When it comes to sex, drugs and alcohol, is it best to have full disclosure with our teens, or keep the details of our past to ourselves? It's a heated debate among parents, and one that surfaced yesterday in two very different blogs. On one hand, a woman (now an adult) who was a child of teen parents is a proponent of being completely truthful. Sandra Knauf writes that when it comes to sex and teen pregnancy, the fact that her mom was openly honest with her has helped her and she believes it would help other kids.
On the other side, Lylah Alphonse's blog reports on Chelsea Lynn Jurman, a teen herself, who did a social science study that found kids are more likely to drink if they know their parents did as kids. The conclusion of her report? Don't tell your kids about your past, it makes it seem more okay to experiment.
Actually, when it comes down to it, experts say to do a little of both. Be honest with your kids, but don't feel like you have to tell them every sordid detail of your past, recommends child pschiatrist Lisa Medoff. She also advises to be ready for the discussion and know ahead of time what you want to share, keep the focus on the child, and be sure it's a conversation, not a lecture. That final tidbit might be the most important, and it's something that resurfaces on various web sites, including theAntiDrug.com, where they remind parents that when your kids ask about your past, it opens up the opportunity for conversation. Something that those of us who are parents of teenagers know is an oportunity few and far between.
What do you think about telling your kids about your past? Take our poll at the bottom of our home page and see where other parents in the Triad stand.
