If you love the Sound of Music, then you probably will want to read this - but you probably shouldn't. It turns out, the story of the real Von Trapps has very little in common with the movie.
Still. It's fascinating.
Showing posts with label Family News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family News. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Housing with Other Generations Now Cool
Apparently, builders have figured out - more or less - that some people want to live near their families and in multi-generational neighborhoods.
It's a great idea, but not new. People once called it "my hometown."
Family | Community | Housing
It's a great idea, but not new. People once called it "my hometown."
Family | Community | Housing
Monday, November 19, 2007
How Many Children Go Hungry in Your State?
Do you know how many households in your state are considered "Food Insecure?" Do you know how many children are living in poverty? Find out by visiting America's Second Harvest's Child Food Insecurity Statistics Map.
While you're on the site, join the Hunger Action Center.
Hunger | Children
While you're on the site, join the Hunger Action Center.
Hunger | Children
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
The Crazy Cost of Family Health Insurance
Did you know premiums for family health coverage have increased 78 percent since 2001?
By comparison, wages rose 19 percent and the inflation rate was 'only' 17 percent, according to this Columbus Business First article.
No wonder my husband's pay raises never seem to result in more money for us. I know it's the insurance, too, because my husband gets his pay increase in March and a cost of living adjust in January. However - the insurance plan doesn't change until July. This year, it ate up his entire pay raise, plus a three percent a cost of living adjust - and then some. Not only that - but our co-pays went up!
The article also included this cheering statistic:
Health Insurance | Family Finances
By comparison, wages rose 19 percent and the inflation rate was 'only' 17 percent, according to this Columbus Business First article.
No wonder my husband's pay raises never seem to result in more money for us. I know it's the insurance, too, because my husband gets his pay increase in March and a cost of living adjust in January. However - the insurance plan doesn't change until July. This year, it ate up his entire pay raise, plus a three percent a cost of living adjust - and then some. Not only that - but our co-pays went up!
The article also included this cheering statistic:
Workers on average now contribute an average of about $3,281, or 27 percent, of their paychecks for a family plan.
Health Insurance | Family Finances
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Family Therapy Helpful for Bulimic Teens
If you've ever been to therapy - and particularly if you've ever had weight issues - you probably won't be surprised by a recent study, reported by Reuters, that found family therapy is more effective than solo therapy for helping teenagers abstain from binging and purging.
I know I wasn't.
I love my family, but no one can drive me to overeat quite like they can.
Sadly, this is the first time U.S. researchers have evaluated treatment plans for bulimia nervosa in teens. The family-based therapy was broken into three phases:
Phase one: Patients and parents meet weekly for a therapist tot ry to help the parents stop their children from engaging in binging and purging. This phase lasts 2-3 months, according to the article.
Phase two: Begins only after success with stage one. In this stage, the family meets with a therapist every other week and the goal is to put give control over 'eating issues' back to the teen.
Phase three: Therapy is moved to once a month and they attempt to address how the eating disorder affects development processes.
The results beat solo therapy: Thirty-nine percent of the 41 patients in family-based therapy were completely abstaining from bulimic behavior, according to the story. Only 18 percent of the 39 bulimics who tried solo therapy had stopped binging and purging.
This family-based approach, called the Maudlsey approach, has also been used effectively to treat anorexia. You can find therapists who specialize in this approach online at Maudsleyparents.org.
Bulimic | Family Therapy | Mental Health | Weight |
I know I wasn't.
I love my family, but no one can drive me to overeat quite like they can.
Sadly, this is the first time U.S. researchers have evaluated treatment plans for bulimia nervosa in teens. The family-based therapy was broken into three phases:
Phase one: Patients and parents meet weekly for a therapist tot ry to help the parents stop their children from engaging in binging and purging. This phase lasts 2-3 months, according to the article.
Phase two: Begins only after success with stage one. In this stage, the family meets with a therapist every other week and the goal is to put give control over 'eating issues' back to the teen.
Phase three: Therapy is moved to once a month and they attempt to address how the eating disorder affects development processes.
The results beat solo therapy: Thirty-nine percent of the 41 patients in family-based therapy were completely abstaining from bulimic behavior, according to the story. Only 18 percent of the 39 bulimics who tried solo therapy had stopped binging and purging.
This family-based approach, called the Maudlsey approach, has also been used effectively to treat anorexia. You can find therapists who specialize in this approach online at Maudsleyparents.org.
Bulimic | Family Therapy | Mental Health | Weight |
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
New Autism Resource for Families
If someone in your family has an autism diagnosis, there's a new online resource you should check out. The Interactive Autism Network was created by the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore to connect families with other families and researchers, according to a recent article in the US News & World Report. You can fill out forms detailing your family member's treatment plan and find out more about how effective others view the treatment - though information is kept confidential unless you agree to have it released to researchers.
There's a community section , as well, where you can chat with other families. Within a month, the site has attracted 13,000 members - that's a lot of people who can give you feed back.
I have a friend whose child was diagnosed with autism. This child has a long medical history - she was born a micro preemie, and that means a lot of health problems and developmental uncertainity. She's had surgeries, is legally blind and is developmentally delayed. My friend handled these issues so well, I thought she should've been named Mother of the Year.
But the autism diagnosis was very difficult for her. It took her several months to process it and, more and less, accept it. (Everyone who knows this child has a lot of questions about the diagnosis, including me.)
My point is, autism is a frightening diagnosis because there's so little we know and we associate it with a child turning into some sort of robot that can't love us. But it's more complicated than that. Maybe this website will help doctors and families learn more about what autism is, what it means and what helps.
There's a community section , as well, where you can chat with other families. Within a month, the site has attracted 13,000 members - that's a lot of people who can give you feed back.
I have a friend whose child was diagnosed with autism. This child has a long medical history - she was born a micro preemie, and that means a lot of health problems and developmental uncertainity. She's had surgeries, is legally blind and is developmentally delayed. My friend handled these issues so well, I thought she should've been named Mother of the Year.
But the autism diagnosis was very difficult for her. It took her several months to process it and, more and less, accept it. (Everyone who knows this child has a lot of questions about the diagnosis, including me.)
My point is, autism is a frightening diagnosis because there's so little we know and we associate it with a child turning into some sort of robot that can't love us. But it's more complicated than that. Maybe this website will help doctors and families learn more about what autism is, what it means and what helps.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Letters from Anne Frank's Father Found
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will release letters by Otto Frank detailing how he tried to get his family - including young daughter Anne Frank - out of Nazi-occupied Holland on Feb. 14 - appropriately enough, Valentine's days. The letters were found last year as part of a collection of other records from agencies that helped people emmigrate from Europe.
The letters show Otto Frank tried to emigrate from Holland to the U.S. or Cuba, via Paris or Spain.
The YIVO Institute, which is based in New York, found the letters among 100,000 other Holocaust-related documents 18 months ago.
Anne Frank, of course, is the young woman who wrote Anne Frank's Diary, an account of her family's attempts to evade Nazi capture by hiding for two years in an attic.
It's a sad reminder of how the world failed so many families during the Holocaust.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
A New Breed of Family: The Crunchy Conservatives
Who drops off out of the dominant culture because it's too materialistic, joins an organic food co-op, and then starts a family farm without pesticides while homeschooling their children?
Apparently, it's a new breed of family called the Crunchy Conservatives.
According to this article, Crunchy Conservatives care about the environment, eat organic food and are dropping out of a culture they feel is too materialistic. Many sound like ex-yuppies who now feel called to a different life - a life that values the family.
What can I say? I agree. Our culture is too materialistic and we should stop worshipping the all-mighty dollar and care about the environment. I agree that work shouldn't be the focus of your life. And I definitely think we shouldn't enroll our children in ballet and six other kinds of activities, sending the family in 60 different directions every night, just because everybody else is.
I just hope that on their way out of the power cities, they remember to call up their power-friends and present their new outlook. I also hope they're respectful of the rural areas to which they're moving. Thanks to their previous incarnations as rich yuppies, they can afford to move to rural areas. Let's see if those farms remain whole instead of being subdivided into five-acre micro play farms.
I also hope they don't isolate themselves from the real, working people who live there - although, with all the homeschooling, it sounds like that might be a big part of the plan.
Still, all-in-all, Crunchy Conservatism, with its focus on the family, anti-materialism, and the environemtn, sounds great to me. Even if, as a liberal, I feel I beat them to the punch. ;-)
Family Values | Conservatives
Apparently, it's a new breed of family called the Crunchy Conservatives.
According to this article, Crunchy Conservatives care about the environment, eat organic food and are dropping out of a culture they feel is too materialistic. Many sound like ex-yuppies who now feel called to a different life - a life that values the family.
What can I say? I agree. Our culture is too materialistic and we should stop worshipping the all-mighty dollar and care about the environment. I agree that work shouldn't be the focus of your life. And I definitely think we shouldn't enroll our children in ballet and six other kinds of activities, sending the family in 60 different directions every night, just because everybody else is.
I just hope that on their way out of the power cities, they remember to call up their power-friends and present their new outlook. I also hope they're respectful of the rural areas to which they're moving. Thanks to their previous incarnations as rich yuppies, they can afford to move to rural areas. Let's see if those farms remain whole instead of being subdivided into five-acre micro play farms.
I also hope they don't isolate themselves from the real, working people who live there - although, with all the homeschooling, it sounds like that might be a big part of the plan.
Still, all-in-all, Crunchy Conservatism, with its focus on the family, anti-materialism, and the environemtn, sounds great to me. Even if, as a liberal, I feel I beat them to the punch. ;-)
Family Values | Conservatives
Friday, January 05, 2007
The Pope on Family
Sunday, the Pope spoke about families and what he sees as the biggest threat to the family unit: Cultural pressure.
I'm not sure he and I would agree on what cultural pressures are dangerous, but I agree in principle that modern culture is chipping away at the family unit. For me, the contemporary hazards faced by the family are materialism, overdemanding work schedules, and the pressures to do and have it all, which leads to overscheduled children and parents. It also seems to be that parents are having to work harder just to hold ground. Who has time for family anymore?
Of course, the Pope defines family a bit differently than I do, so he sees threats where I do not.
Family
I'm not sure he and I would agree on what cultural pressures are dangerous, but I agree in principle that modern culture is chipping away at the family unit. For me, the contemporary hazards faced by the family are materialism, overdemanding work schedules, and the pressures to do and have it all, which leads to overscheduled children and parents. It also seems to be that parents are having to work harder just to hold ground. Who has time for family anymore?
Of course, the Pope defines family a bit differently than I do, so he sees threats where I do not.
Family
Sunday, December 31, 2006
My New Year's Resolutions
During December, I talked about setting family goals, and I set five. But after giving it further thought, I realized these goals were actually small things I wanted to do to achieve overarching changes in our family's life.
The whole purpose of creating this blog was to document my efforts and research on building family. In reviewing what I've written so far, I realize I have six goals for my life and my family:
1. Show the Love. I want to show my family how much I love them. Too often, the small acts get lost in the daily grind. For me, showing the love means making family a priority, as well as little acts of love and physical expressions such as hugs and kisses. My family growing up was never much for physical expressions of love, so this is a bit of a challenge for me. Since I work from home, another challenge for me will be more focused and structured about when I work so it doesn't interfere with family time or my sleep. When I'm sleepy, I tend to be grumpy, and that's NOT showing the Love.
2. Build Family Identity. This means doing things together as a family, such as chores and family dinners. It also includes shaping our family identity by taking actions that reflect the values we, as parents, want to give our child. Obviously, the other goals support this goal.
3. Become a Healthy Family. I mentioned taking a family walk once a week as a goal. It's a good one, but my real goal is for us to simply be more active, eat better, sleep more and take care of ourselves. As the mother, I feel I set the pace here, and frankly, I'm not setting a very good one.
4. Widen Our Family Circle. This means inviting friends and family into our home more, finding more family friends and reaching out into the community as a family.
5. Be a Financially Responsible Family. Financial health can be an overwhelming topic, but there are standard guidelines you should follow: Build an emergency fund, eliminate debt, build savings, buy a home, make sure you have a will, make sure you have life insurance for both parents, make sure you have disability insurance, save for retirement, and so on. For our family, we need to rebuild our saving by curtailing eating out and frivolous spending. That means a budget. I also want to make sure we write a will in the next four months.
6. Create a Family-Friendly Home. My house is pretty kid friendly, but there are things I neglect that would make it more comfortable and more functional for the whole family.
So those are my final resolutions for the New Year and an outline for what I'll be discussing on this blog.
Family | Family Resolutions
The whole purpose of creating this blog was to document my efforts and research on building family. In reviewing what I've written so far, I realize I have six goals for my life and my family:
1. Show the Love. I want to show my family how much I love them. Too often, the small acts get lost in the daily grind. For me, showing the love means making family a priority, as well as little acts of love and physical expressions such as hugs and kisses. My family growing up was never much for physical expressions of love, so this is a bit of a challenge for me. Since I work from home, another challenge for me will be more focused and structured about when I work so it doesn't interfere with family time or my sleep. When I'm sleepy, I tend to be grumpy, and that's NOT showing the Love.
2. Build Family Identity. This means doing things together as a family, such as chores and family dinners. It also includes shaping our family identity by taking actions that reflect the values we, as parents, want to give our child. Obviously, the other goals support this goal.
3. Become a Healthy Family. I mentioned taking a family walk once a week as a goal. It's a good one, but my real goal is for us to simply be more active, eat better, sleep more and take care of ourselves. As the mother, I feel I set the pace here, and frankly, I'm not setting a very good one.
4. Widen Our Family Circle. This means inviting friends and family into our home more, finding more family friends and reaching out into the community as a family.
5. Be a Financially Responsible Family. Financial health can be an overwhelming topic, but there are standard guidelines you should follow: Build an emergency fund, eliminate debt, build savings, buy a home, make sure you have a will, make sure you have life insurance for both parents, make sure you have disability insurance, save for retirement, and so on. For our family, we need to rebuild our saving by curtailing eating out and frivolous spending. That means a budget. I also want to make sure we write a will in the next four months.
6. Create a Family-Friendly Home. My house is pretty kid friendly, but there are things I neglect that would make it more comfortable and more functional for the whole family.
So those are my final resolutions for the New Year and an outline for what I'll be discussing on this blog.
Family | Family Resolutions
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Kitten Saves Family of Four
Well. I guess I'm wrong about cats not being very caring pets. A family picked up a "free to good home" kitten, who reciprocated by saving their lives when a fire broke out. Amazing.
Family | Family News | Kitten
Family | Family News | Kitten
Thursday, December 28, 2006
'When Parents Are Deployed' Airs Tonight
It's easy to talk about war and 'supporting the troops,' but how many people really appreciate the sacrifice made by military families? For instance, did you know that an estimated 700,000 children under five are separated from a parent overseas in the U.S. military? I didn't. That's a lot of children missing at least one parent - and keep in mind, for many of those children, there may only be one parent.
PBS is spotlighting this issue today in a special program called, "When Parents Are Deployed." It's hosted by Cuba Gooding, Junior and will feature the Sesame Street cast, so it should be appropriate for the whole family.
The point isn't to be pro- or anti-war, but to educate people about the needs of these families. Still, war is a fact of life and children are often introduced to it via the nightly news, which can be just frightening or too inhuman. This show could offer a wonderful opportunity to explain war and the issues that surround it with little ones.
The show also discusses how families stay in contact. If you're a military family - or a family who has someone who travels extensively for business - this show will give you some ideas about how to stay connected. I particularly love the ritual where the father and son both say goodnight to the moon, knowing the other is doing the same thing halfway around the world.
You can check your local PBS affiliate online for times.
PBS | Military Families | war
PBS is spotlighting this issue today in a special program called, "When Parents Are Deployed." It's hosted by Cuba Gooding, Junior and will feature the Sesame Street cast, so it should be appropriate for the whole family.
The point isn't to be pro- or anti-war, but to educate people about the needs of these families. Still, war is a fact of life and children are often introduced to it via the nightly news, which can be just frightening or too inhuman. This show could offer a wonderful opportunity to explain war and the issues that surround it with little ones.
The show also discusses how families stay in contact. If you're a military family - or a family who has someone who travels extensively for business - this show will give you some ideas about how to stay connected. I particularly love the ritual where the father and son both say goodnight to the moon, knowing the other is doing the same thing halfway around the world.
You can check your local PBS affiliate online for times.
PBS | Military Families | war
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Greetings for Wednesday
Today is the second day of Kwanzaa and the principle of the day is self-determination.
My favorite family story today is about Virtual Family Dinners. This is a fascinating idea that goes beyond videoconferencing. The system is designed for elderly family members who all-too-often eat alone. It would detect when they sit down to dinner and alert a family member who's available to chat with them. They'd be able to see each other and chat.
According to a doctor interviewed in the story, there are health benefits to eating with others. Potentially, this could increase the health of elderly family members and postpone hospitalization or the need for out of home care.
We're still about two years from seeing this on the shelves, but it's cost is estimated at between $500 and $1,000 per household.
This week, we're talking about family resolutions and other ways to celebrate the New Year as a family. This will be slightly hypocritical of me, as I plan to celebrate with friends after dropping Little Bit off at Grandmas. But before then and New Year's Day, I figure there will be plenty of opportunities for a family celebration.
Stay tuned...
Technorati | Family in the News | Elderly | Family Dinner
My favorite family story today is about Virtual Family Dinners. This is a fascinating idea that goes beyond videoconferencing. The system is designed for elderly family members who all-too-often eat alone. It would detect when they sit down to dinner and alert a family member who's available to chat with them. They'd be able to see each other and chat.
According to a doctor interviewed in the story, there are health benefits to eating with others. Potentially, this could increase the health of elderly family members and postpone hospitalization or the need for out of home care.
We're still about two years from seeing this on the shelves, but it's cost is estimated at between $500 and $1,000 per household.
This week, we're talking about family resolutions and other ways to celebrate the New Year as a family. This will be slightly hypocritical of me, as I plan to celebrate with friends after dropping Little Bit off at Grandmas. But before then and New Year's Day, I figure there will be plenty of opportunities for a family celebration.
Stay tuned...
Technorati | Family in the News | Elderly | Family Dinner
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Families in the News
On Tuesdays, I've been sharing family news from around the world. I try to find the more interesting and unusual stories, of course. In the future, I'll be breaking these down and offering them daily instead of in one big clump once a week.
Enjoy!
One of the points of this blog is to talk about how we can extend our family circle to include friends and community. In
Secret's out: Join family at Kwanzaa, we learn about a family doing just that for Kwanzaa.
One of the most devasting problems families can face is addiction. It destroys many family efficiently and without mercy. And most families don't recover.
In Maryland, courts can order parents who lose their children to go through the Family Recovery Program, an experimental program. The Washington Post followed one of the first families to go through the treatment program - a mother and father who lost their child shortly after her birth in 2005. The mother tested positive for cocaine.
In the last installment of the series, reporter Mary Otto catches up with the family just as the courts decide whether or not to return their one year old daughter to their custody. What happens is heartbreaking, but with a touch of hope for two members of this family.
While it's sad the choices these individuals have made, what frustrated me most was the fact that the father is threatened with his job when he leaves to take care of his daughter. I've read about poor families being forced to make this choice over and over: If they must leave to take care of their children - and usually the situations were it's obvious they do need to choose the children - they lose their job. If they choose the job, then their children are endangered and they can loose their children. Most middle class families wouldn't face this choice because their employers value their skills and won't dare treat them so disrespectfully.
What I don't understand is why any employer would threaten to fire an employee for choosing to help their child. And you can't say, "Well, maybe the guy did it once too often," because he hasn't even had custody of his child for over a year! Clearly, this is an employer that didn't value this man as a person with a child who needed its father.
How do we expect to break the cycle of poverty if employers keep giving people these type of choices?
I'm not even quite sure how I found this, but since we're always hearing how gay unions and gay parents are ruining family life for all the straight people, I thought it was interesting to see how gay families are changing things for gays. Gone are the wild days of open sexuality, it seems. Everything's turning kid-friendly as more gays become parents.
And if you think you had a rough time with travel this holiday season, you might get a kick out of this story about a family - we're talking major extended family here - who has been coming home for Christmas to the same house for 101 years.
Finally, here's a profile of a family that probably has too much togetherness. Many people are glad to just to have survived their family during the holidays and are looking for a few months of reprive. But for the Droppo family, getting back to work means even more family time. They explain what it's like to run a family business in
Working with relatives can be tricky business.
Family | Families and Addiction| Gay Families | Family Business | Kwanzaa
Enjoy!
One of the points of this blog is to talk about how we can extend our family circle to include friends and community. In
Secret's out: Join family at Kwanzaa, we learn about a family doing just that for Kwanzaa.
One of the most devasting problems families can face is addiction. It destroys many family efficiently and without mercy. And most families don't recover.
In Maryland, courts can order parents who lose their children to go through the Family Recovery Program, an experimental program. The Washington Post followed one of the first families to go through the treatment program - a mother and father who lost their child shortly after her birth in 2005. The mother tested positive for cocaine.
In the last installment of the series, reporter Mary Otto catches up with the family just as the courts decide whether or not to return their one year old daughter to their custody. What happens is heartbreaking, but with a touch of hope for two members of this family.
While it's sad the choices these individuals have made, what frustrated me most was the fact that the father is threatened with his job when he leaves to take care of his daughter. I've read about poor families being forced to make this choice over and over: If they must leave to take care of their children - and usually the situations were it's obvious they do need to choose the children - they lose their job. If they choose the job, then their children are endangered and they can loose their children. Most middle class families wouldn't face this choice because their employers value their skills and won't dare treat them so disrespectfully.
What I don't understand is why any employer would threaten to fire an employee for choosing to help their child. And you can't say, "Well, maybe the guy did it once too often," because he hasn't even had custody of his child for over a year! Clearly, this is an employer that didn't value this man as a person with a child who needed its father.
How do we expect to break the cycle of poverty if employers keep giving people these type of choices?
I'm not even quite sure how I found this, but since we're always hearing how gay unions and gay parents are ruining family life for all the straight people, I thought it was interesting to see how gay families are changing things for gays. Gone are the wild days of open sexuality, it seems. Everything's turning kid-friendly as more gays become parents.
And if you think you had a rough time with travel this holiday season, you might get a kick out of this story about a family - we're talking major extended family here - who has been coming home for Christmas to the same house for 101 years.
Finally, here's a profile of a family that probably has too much togetherness. Many people are glad to just to have survived their family during the holidays and are looking for a few months of reprive. But for the Droppo family, getting back to work means even more family time. They explain what it's like to run a family business in Working with relatives can be tricky business.
Family | Families and Addiction| Gay Families | Family Business | Kwanzaa
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Families in the Spotlight This Week
A big shout out to the Humphries Family of Chicago, who made the news this week because all three of whom will be celebrating the same birthday next year. The couple already shared a birthday, but their son came two days early this December to give each parent a special birthday gift. Talk about a great family tradition!
Special prayers for the family and friends of Paul, Lillian, Shawn, 11, and Kitanna, 10, Martin, a Texas family that died together in a plane crash this week. In general, I think it's pointless to read about random trajedies because there's nothing you can do but feel bad. However, in this case, do read about the Martins. They were an amazing family. They seemed to have put their time here to good, loving use. I should have so many great family memories when I die. The picture is from News 8 Austin.
If you're following the story of the missing climbers on Mount Hood, you might want to read the official response of their family members and include them in your prayers/meditations/moments of remembrance this week.
"Try to See Things from Elders' Perspectives This Season," a column published on the Pensacola News Journal's website, reminds us to include seniors in our holiday celebrations. I particularly liked the point he makes about including seniors in holiday preparations, such as trimming the tree and gift shopping. We focus so much on children during Christmas and Hanukkah, that we sometimes forget our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Hubby's grandmother will be spending Christmas in the hospital. We plan to drop by for awhile on Christmas morning, but after reading this, I'm going to encourage him to bring her a small tree now.
In a similar vein, columnist Linda Rhodes of the Patriot News reminds us to create new traditions with parents who have lost a spouse. Tips Can Help Parents Navigate Holidays is full of great suggestions, but my favorite is to remember deceased family members during the holidays. We want holidays to be perfect, so we force ourselves to avoid anything painful - even if those memories are full of love and are our hearts are aching anyway. She suggests you acknowledge the loss and the love that person brought to your life. A beautiful idea.
In South Asia, news that Pakistani mosques will encourage family planning made headlines this week. The story notes that Pakistan families are often large because people don't have social security and feel they need a large family to ensure they'll be cared for as they age. The minister quoted in the story points out that two well-educated children can care for aging parents as well as many uneducated children. Touche!
Ever wonder what Chuck Norris thinks about families, raising children and Christmas break? No, me either. But the man apparently writes a regular column and this week it's on latchkey kids and the dangers of electronic entertainment. I wonder about that stat on latchkey kids. It's kinda frightening. He sources an article on Associated Content, but the article doesn't give a source for the stat and the referenced documents at the end of it don't include the stat. The closest I came was this number from the Oakland Tribute: Approximately one million California kids, 12-17 years old, are unsupervised after school three or more days each week, according to a government poll.
Family | Families in the News | Holiday tips
Special prayers for the family and friends of Paul, Lillian, Shawn, 11, and Kitanna, 10, Martin, a Texas family that died together in a plane crash this week. In general, I think it's pointless to read about random trajedies because there's nothing you can do but feel bad. However, in this case, do read about the Martins. They were an amazing family. They seemed to have put their time here to good, loving use. I should have so many great family memories when I die. The picture is from News 8 Austin.If you're following the story of the missing climbers on Mount Hood, you might want to read the official response of their family members and include them in your prayers/meditations/moments of remembrance this week.
"Try to See Things from Elders' Perspectives This Season," a column published on the Pensacola News Journal's website, reminds us to include seniors in our holiday celebrations. I particularly liked the point he makes about including seniors in holiday preparations, such as trimming the tree and gift shopping. We focus so much on children during Christmas and Hanukkah, that we sometimes forget our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Hubby's grandmother will be spending Christmas in the hospital. We plan to drop by for awhile on Christmas morning, but after reading this, I'm going to encourage him to bring her a small tree now.
In a similar vein, columnist Linda Rhodes of the Patriot News reminds us to create new traditions with parents who have lost a spouse. Tips Can Help Parents Navigate Holidays is full of great suggestions, but my favorite is to remember deceased family members during the holidays. We want holidays to be perfect, so we force ourselves to avoid anything painful - even if those memories are full of love and are our hearts are aching anyway. She suggests you acknowledge the loss and the love that person brought to your life. A beautiful idea.
In South Asia, news that Pakistani mosques will encourage family planning made headlines this week. The story notes that Pakistan families are often large because people don't have social security and feel they need a large family to ensure they'll be cared for as they age. The minister quoted in the story points out that two well-educated children can care for aging parents as well as many uneducated children. Touche!
Ever wonder what Chuck Norris thinks about families, raising children and Christmas break? No, me either. But the man apparently writes a regular column and this week it's on latchkey kids and the dangers of electronic entertainment. I wonder about that stat on latchkey kids. It's kinda frightening. He sources an article on Associated Content, but the article doesn't give a source for the stat and the referenced documents at the end of it don't include the stat. The closest I came was this number from the Oakland Tribute: Approximately one million California kids, 12-17 years old, are unsupervised after school three or more days each week, according to a government poll.
Family | Families in the News | Holiday tips
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