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Child has purest response for cashier who
questioned the color of her doll
:55
Make the World Safe for Children
How to Raise a Financially Savvy
Child
One couple's perfect response to people asking
when they're going to have kids.
Children Now
Cost to Raise a Child
Our new research shows where kids get
their news and how they feel about it
Our Children Are Anxious -- And For No Good
Reason
Critical Issues for Children and Youths
Critical Health Issues for Children and Youth
Child Abuse
Children
& Domestic Violence
Children & Poverty
Daycare
Disabilities
Juvenile Court
When School is Out
Adults drop their wallets next to kids to
see what they will do. It's a beautiful experiment.
Injuries - The Leading Cause of
Death
Young Kids and Booze: Tasting
Common
What it's like to be 12 today? These
preteens cover it all.
The painful persistence of
corporal punishment
Poison
Missing
Children
Newsbytes
Emergency
Numbers
Related Issues: Talking With Kids
About Tough Issues,
Children's
Books
Journals
- on Child, Emotional, Religious, and Sexual Abuse and Trauma
Periodicals
Bumper
Sticker - Make the World Safe for Children
Make the World Safe for Children
The decisions you make everyday effect life as we know it on this planet. Here are some things you can do:
Look at the way you are in the world, how you release or stuff your anger, how you treat strangers, friends, loved ones, children. Are you a good role model for children and other adults? What if every decision and action you made, at home, at work and in the world was based on making the world safe for children?
Take a moment to daydream: what kind of a world would that be? What would it look like? Are you willing to actively help create that world?
Look at your personal commitment to the environment, your health (both physical and mental), exercise and the food you eat. Stop putting off those decisions to "get healthy".
Copy this letter and mail or fax it to all your friends and relatives asking them to do the same.
Send a letter to politicians at the federal, state and local level encouraging them to make only those decisions that insure a world safe for children.
Encourage children through school and church to send a letter (1) to President Clinton asking him to make only those decisions that insure a world safe for children and (2) to their parents asking them to "Make this world a safe place for me in everything you do".
Use resources at your disposal - local bulletin boards at grocery stores, Laundromats, the office, on computers, etc. to spread the word.
Men and fathers do care. Do you? If so, get actively involved in any way you can to see to it that change happens.
Think about it! Then do something about it - TODAY! It's not too late! And, if you think of additional things to add to this list, let us know. - Gordon Clay See also Bumper Stickers
How to Raise a Financially Savvy
Child
Preschool – Start by using bills and coins to teach them what the value of each is worth. Even if you don't get into the exact values, explain that a quarter is worth more than a dime and a dollar is worth more than a quarter. From there, explain that buying things at the store comes down to a choice based on how much money you have (you can't buy every toy you see!). Also, get them a piggy bank to start saving coins and small bills.
Grade school – Consider starting an allowance and developing a simple spending plan. Teach them how to read price tags and do comparison-shopping. Open a savings account to replace the piggy bank and teach them about interest and the importance of regular saving. Have them participate in family financial discussions about major purchases, vacations and other simple money decisions.
Babies holding money
Middle school – Start connecting work with earning money. Start simple with babysitting, mowing lawns or walking dogs. Open a checking account and transition the simple spending plan into a budget to save funds to make larger purchases. If you have not already done so, it is a good time to introduce the importance of donating money to church or charity.
High school – Explain the job application and interview process. Work with them to get a part-time job to start building work experience. Add additional expense responsibility by transferring direct responsibility for things like gas, lunches and expenses for going out with friends. Introduce investing by explaining stocks, mutual funds, CDs and IRAs. Talk about financial mistakes and how to deal with them when they happen — try to use some of your real-life examples. If college is the goal after high school, include them in the financial planning decisions.
College – Teach them about borrowing money and all its future implications. Explain how credit cards can be a good companion to a budget, but warn of the dangers of mismanagement or not paying the bill in full each month. Discuss the importance of their credit score and how it affects future plans like buying a house. Talk about retirement savings and the importance of building their retirement account.
Knowing about money — how to earn it, use it, invest it and
share it — is a valuable life skill. Simply talking with your
children about its importance is often not enough. Find simple, age
specific ways to build their financial IQ. A financially savvy child
will hopefully lead to a financially wise adult.
Source: news.resourcesforclients.com/article.php?u=gkWHWhWcnqF4&issue=113&a=368
Our new research shows where kids get
their news and how they feel about it
News and America's Kids surveyed 853 children age 10–18 to find out where they get news, which news sources (including social media sites) they prefer, how much they trust the news, and how they feel about the news. It's clear from the results that news is not only for adults. Many children say following the news is important to them and that they feel smarter when they get the news. However, many kids feel that their voices aren't represented in news coverage and that news organizations don't understand their experiences. Check out the infographic that illustrates the results of the survey. Here are some of the key findings:
Kids value the news. About half of kids say that following the news is important to them, and more than two-thirds say that consuming news makes them feel smart and knowledgeable. Half of the children surveyed feel that following the news helps them feel prepared to make a difference in their communities. Learn how to talk to kids about the news.
Kids feel neglected and misrepresented. Nearly three quarters of surveyed kids think that the media should show more people their age, rather than grown-ups talking about them. Additionally, 69 percent say that the news media has no idea about the experiences of people their age, and less than half think the news covers issues that matter to them.
Kids see racial and gender bias in the news. Half of children agree with the statement "Whenever I see an African-American or Latino person in the news, they're usually involved in crimes, violence, or other problems." And only one in three kids agrees that the news treats women and men equally fairly.
What kids are seeing scares them and makes them feel depressed. Content can be disturbing, causing most kids to feel afraid, angry, and/or sad or depressed. Tweens are more likely than teens to say that the news makes them feel afraid.
Kids also often are fooled by fake news. Less than half of children agree that they can tell fake news stories from real ones. Experiences with fake news may be a reason that only one in four kids puts "a lot" of trust in the information they receive from news organizations. Find out how to help kids spot fake news.
Kids trust family for news (but still prefer to get it from social media). Sixty-six percent say they trust the news they hear from family "a lot," with teachers being the second-most-trusted source. However, when asked to select their preferred news source, online news sources win out.
These findings speak to the importance of supporting tweens' and
teens' media-literacy skills -- the critical thinking needed to judge
the value of information. In the short term, that means that when
kids come across a suspicious news story on Facebook, they need to
know how to interpret the information and whether it's worth sharing.
In the long term, that means teaching them to question what they see,
hear, and interact with to become not only good citizens but good
digital citizens. Common Sense has a number of resources to help
families develop the tools they need to thrive as 21st-century
citizens. And since the No. 1 place kids hear about news is from the
adults in their lives, we need to model how to consume news,
encourage kids to think critically about sources, and discuss the
news with the children in our lives.
Source: www.aol.com/article/lifestyle/2017/03/22/our-new-research-shows-where-kids-get-their-news-and-how-they-fe/22020194/
One couple's perfect response to people asking
when they're going to have kids.
"When are you guys going to start having kids?"
Like many couples, Carrie Jansen and her husband Nic had heard this question a million different ways, a million different times.
The pressure really started to mount when the pair, who've been together for eight years, got married three years ago. While Carrie loves kids (she's an elementary school teacher, after all), she and Nic simply aren’t interested in having kids of their own. Now or ever.
"It's not what I was meant for," explains Carrie in a Facebook message. "It's like, I love flowers, and everyone loves flowers. But that doesn't mean I want to grow my own. I'm perfectly happy admiring other people's gardens.”
Carrie wanted to tell her family that they don't plan on having kids but knew if she did, they'd say something like, "Oh you'll change your mind one day!" and that pesky question would keep rearing its ugly head.
Rather than continue to deflect the question over and over, Carrie decided to do something a little bit different.
Since the couple was adding another mouth to feed to the family, they decided to announce it with a series of maternity-style photos, revealing the twist: The new addition was a puppy named Leelu, not a baby.
"My husband and I have been married 3 years and everyone is bugging us about having a baby. Close enough right?" she captioned the photos.
Her pictures went insanely viral, with many of the commenters giving her props for hilariously addressing the dreaded "kids " question.
"If you don't want kids, don't have kids. Seriously. Have fun with each other. I had three kids early and it's all about them now," wrote one user. "I wish people would just mind their business raising a kid ain't easy and cheap," wrote another.
"I got my husband a vasectomy for his birthday this year. Best gift ever," chimed in a third.
Carrie was overwhelmed and inspired by the viral response. "Having children is definitely a hot topic, and one that is evolving in this generation like so many other social issues," she says. "It's exciting to find others that feel the same way I do."
Carrie is hardly alone in not wanting to have kids — in fact, a record number of women are choosing not to have kids today.
In 2014, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey found 47.6% of women between age 15 and 44 had never had children, which is the highest percentage on record. Despite the numbers, however, because we still live in a patriarchally-driven society, women regularly face the expectation that they should be mothers, and they often are judged if they decide not to be.
Whether you want to have one kid, five kids, no kids, or a puppy, the choice should be yours and no one else’s.
No one else has the right to put pressure on you to change your
body and life in a drastic way. Thankfully, because of women like
Carrie — and partners like Nic — who aren't afraid to bring
the subject out in the open, the expectations are slowly but surely
changing.
Source: http://www.upworthy.com/one-couples-perfect-response-to-people-asking-when-theyre-going-to-have-kids?c=upw1&u=07fa0e7f2d23f338b4a3b29d16b2a71a4c4e496b
Our Children Are Anxious -- And For No Good
Reason
"The average American child in the 1980s reported more anxiety than child psychiatric patients in the 1950s," says Case Western Reserve University.
Did you get that? A child who was under treatment for mental disorders was less anxious than is today's normal child.
Analyses found that anxiety among children and among college students increased a full standard deviation -- a statistical measurement -- between 1952 and 1993.
The authors suggest that decreases in social conceitedness and increases in environmental dangers are responsible for the rise in anxiety. They also say that economic factors are insignificant. But have environmental dangers increased? Only to the Chicken Littles. The dangers aren't real; they're not affecting you as an individual in a major way. What are real are exaggerated media reports, which the audience exaggerates further and then spreads around. Then the fear level among the public goes way up.
The media paradox is something I've talked about before. One negative report that appears in print or is broadcast has much more clout than does the positive testimony of fifty friends and neighbors. One little terror that happened to one little person in a faraway land looms large in the brain.
Objective evidence is a poor match for the dramatic reports of impending catastrophe that the media pummels us with every day.
Now you know why kids like nothing better than numbing themselves with TV and video games.
Source: Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, Vol. 79 No. 6 www.healthcentral.com/drdean/deanFullTexttopics.cfm?ID=45403&storytype=DeanTopics
Injuries - The Leading Cause of Death
Unintentional injuries to children are costly:
Most unintentional injury deaths to children can be prevented:
Education to promote changes in individual behaviors can have a modest effect in reducing the risk of childhood injuries.
Environmental and product modifications that make children's physical surroundings, toys, and clothing safer can dramatically decrease the incidence of childhood injuries, though many such efforts are not widespread.
Legislation and regulation are among the most powerful tools to reduce childhood injuries, and most environment and product design changes require legal action. Many existing laws, however, are not fully enforced or have loopholes that limit their effectiveness, and some effective laws have not been adopted in every state.
Reducing the rate of child injury deaths in the future will
require the dedication of individuals to implement what we know
works, the determination of communities to create environments where
children can grow up safely, and the public and private dollars to
support injury prevention research and to disseminate effective
interventions. Source: The Future of Children Vol. 10 No.
1, Spring/Summer, 2000.
What it's like to be 12
today? These preteens cover it all.
Things get weird when you're 12.
The world gets a bit bigger, your opinions become a bit more defined. And your body? Well, your body is an entire story on its own. So many changes!
WNYC has been busy capturing what the life of a 12-year-old sounds, looks, and feels like in today's society in a super-entertaining series called "Being 12."
Here's a fun look at some of the kids they met up with in New York
City. (Excuse me — "mature kids.")
Source: www.upworthy.com/whats-it-like-to-be-12-today-these-preteens-cover-it-all?c=click
Adults drop their wallets next to kids to
see what they will do. It's a beautiful experiment.
Are kids born with a sense of right and wrong? Or is that something we develop along the way?
2:16 I certainly spent much of my childhood selfishly yelling, "Finders keepers, losers weepers!" or "It's mine, I found it first!" — anything to claim victory before my sister beat me to it. And I'm sure I wasn't the only little kid who wanted to keep things for myself no matter the cost. (Right, guys?)
In an utterly adorable social experiment, the Japanese Red Cross put little kids' kindness to the test.
Here's what they were testing: When kids are by themselves and a stranger next to them drops a wallet, what will the kids do? Will they take the wallet, leave it, or let the person know?
And it's not just about the wallet. It's about helping others. It's about what's morally right and wrong. And it's about young kids who are all just figuring it out as they go.
The way these kids reacted gave me loads of hope for our future.
When each kid saw a wallet dropped next to them, they hesitated for a second.
Some looked around or quietly tried to alert the stranger whose wallet was dropped.
But they all eventually broke through their shyness and uncertainty to do the thing they knew was right: They alerted the stranger to the dropped wallet. Every. Single. Kid.
The kindness of little kids has even been proven by science.
According to research conducted at Yale University's Infant Cognition Center, babies can identify mean behavior (in puppets) when they're just three months old. Not only that, but when given the choice, they'd rather hang out with the, um, puppets with nicer behavior.
Babies have morals? Holy crap.
This experiment is a heartwarming and beautiful display of what happens when we look out not only for ourselves, but for each other.
Doing the right thing can have such a huge impact — no matter
how big or small the situation may seem. Heck, it might even be the
natural thing to do!
Source: www.upworthy.com/adults-drop-their-wallets-next-to-kids-to-see-what-they-will-do-its-a-beautiful-experiment?c=upw1&u=07fa0e7f2d23f338b4a3b29d16b2a71a4c4e496b
Children Of Divorce Need Expert Help;
Counseling Helps With Coping Skills
Science Offers Parents Clues On How To
Help Their Children Build A Good Life
Playing It Safe With Sports Safety
If Your Child Has a Heart Defect
10 Things That Might Surprise You About
Being Pregnant
How to Talk to Your Child's Doctor
Many Parents Are Misinformed About
Booster Seat Use
When It's Just You in an Emergency
Should We Help To Create Disabled
Babies?
Articles written by kids who
have different illnesses and conditions
Families Torn By Childhood Disorders
Finding Hope
Effective Treatment For Children With ADHD And
Chronic Tic Disorders
Did You Know...Skin is an Organ
What to Do When You Don't Like
School
Treatment Of Bipolar Children
Encouraging
Infection Can Spread Fast to Others
Delayed Speech or Language
Development
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Now Recognized In
Children
The Real Deal on the Digestive System
When It's Just You After School
What Kids Should Know about
Alzheimer's
What Girls AND Should Know about
Breast Cancer
Who Do You Deal with Your Feelings?
Friends can Make You Laugh and Cry
When It's Just You in an Emergency
See also Emergency
on this site.Why Does Eating Ice Cream Give Me a
Headache?
Getting Calcium On Young Girls' Radar
CDC study documents salmonella resistant
to important drug for kids
Low-calorie diet may help children shed
pounds safely
Boys Not as Tough as Society Thinks
"Boys are more vulnerable (than girls) even before they are born," Dr Sebastian Kraemer of the Tavistock Clinic in London, UK, told Reuters Health. ``This is evident in the newborn boy who is developmentally behind newborn girls.''
Perinatal brain damage is more common among boys, as are other "obstetric catastrophes" such as congenital deformed genitalia and limbs and cerebral palsy, Kraemer writes.
And the battle continues throughout life, suggests Kraemer, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist.
After birth, boys are three to four times more likely than girls to have developmental disorders--such as specific reading delay, autism, stammering, and Tourette's syndrome--and twice as likely to have conduct and disorders.
In addition, girls seem to be more academically fit than boys. Results of a national secondary education examination taken by 16-year-olds in England show that more than 50% of girls obtained a grade of C or above compared to roughly 40% of boys.
However, males ``tend to have superior skills in mathematic and other non-verbal tasks,'' Kraemer points out.
In adulthood, men are more likely than women to suffer circulatory disorders, diabetes, alcoholism, ulcers and lung cancer. In cases of substance abuse--also more common among males--men may not notice signs of illness, and are less likely to seek medical help when they do, Kraemer states. Males are also more likely to commit suicide.
"Before concluding that maleness is a genetic disorder, it is important to note that the foregoing data are embedded in social values about normality," Kraemer writes.
For example, "male advantages in physical strength and spatial skills were probably more useful in the past," he explains.
Kraemer asserts that his findings may have implications for the upbringing of boys.
"If parents knew that boys were more sensitive they would not try to toughen them upbut would realise that to make a strong and brave man you have to give him sensitive care,'' he notes.
"Doctors, too, need to be aware that male patients may withhold their health concerns for fear of appearing needy or may ignore them altogether," Kraemer concludes.
Source: British Medical Journal
2000;321:1609-1612.
Children Can Overdose on Ritalin
Kangaroo' Parenting in Brazil has Good
Results
Children's Anxiety at an All-time High
The
painful persistence of corporal punishment
Across the country, numerous public institutions are legally
responsible for children every day.
Day care centers, early learning programs and juvenile detention centers are just a few examples of institutions with this duty. States frequently ban the use of practices such as corporal punishment in such institutions. But in 19 states, the most frequented spaces for young people aren’t on that list – schools. And that’s despite these states explicitly banning corporal punishment in many of these other settings.
Proponents of corporal punishment in school contend it’s a last resort for the worst-behaving students, one that’s necessary to enforce classroom order. But our research shows that black boys are twice as likely to be struck by an educator as white boys (14 percent vs. 7.5 percent), and black girls are three times as likely as white girls (5.2 percent vs. 1.7 percent) in schools that practice corporal punishment. These disparities are occurring despite research showing that black students do not misbehave more than white students.
The disproportionate use of corporal punishment on black students in American schools lays bare a deeply entrenched, problematic practice that’s sanctioned by states, especially in the Deep South. We’ve released a new report that found 10 Southern states account for more than three-quarters of all corporal punishment in public schools. The four states that account for more than 70 percent of all students receiving corporal punishment are Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas.
Decades of research finds the practice is extremely harmful to students. Young black children are routinely criminalized – pushed into the school-to-prison pipeline – when it comes to school discipline in the United States. It’s a clear indicator that our education system needs reform that will encourage more effective and safer management of classrooms that prioritizes the safety of all students.
Yet one in every 20 students attending schools that practice corporal punishment were still struck in 2013-14 and 2015-16, according to our report. And in more than half of the schools practicing corporal punishment, students with disabilities were struck at higher rates than those without disabilities.
Every child deserves the opportunity to attend school free from harm and free to learn. The minority of states that still allow corporal punishment in school should join the rest of the country in prohibiting this dangerous and discriminatory practice.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson notes in the report’s foreword that this information “should shock our conscience – not only because studies show that students of color do not misbehave any more than their white peers, but because the impact of corporal punishment can be devastating on a student’s ability to learn and succeed.”
Protecting the rights of all children should be at the heart of the American education system, but until we stop accepting this inequality for black students and students with disabilities, it won’t be.
The Editors
P.S. Here are some other pieces we think are valuable this week:
Report: Students of color, disabled students more likely to receive corporal punishment from Fox 28Prominent white supremacists are still on YouTube in wake of ban from CNN
New Jersey judge orders conversion therapy provider to dissolve - again from Metro Weekly
SPLC sues Trump Administration for detaining Georgia immigrants who cannot afford bail from Atlanta Daily World
Source: Southern Poverty Law Center 6/15/19
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