Posted on October 21st, 2010 by nmolitor
The stories of teens and young adults being bullied online are abundant and sad. But in the midst of tragedy, we’re seeing some good. And sometimes it’s even coming from the same technology that people are using to torment.
Celebrities are speaking out and producing videos for YouTube, sending messages to gay teens that “It Gets Better.” People around the country rallied online for “Spirit Day,” wearing purple on Oct. 20, showing their support of GLBT teens and awareness of the effects of bullying and suicide. Word of the event spread via Facebook, blogs and Twitter.
When I first wrote about the devastating impact of bullying earlier this year, I was unaware that bullying would soon hit me very close to home. A week later, my 15-year old daughter came home from her high school – Evanston Township, just north of Chicago – and mentioned that a group of students had put up a Facebook page called “Evanston Rats.” It was demeaning and humiliated students by name. The page was incredibly nasty, accusing other students of a variety of personal crimes, from stealing someone’s boyfriend to cheating on tests and much more.
Filed under: Children, Parenting, Resilience | Comments Off
Posted on September 8th, 2010 by nmolitor
Do you lie awake at night hashing over and over the things you messed up? Do you worry so much about what could go wrong in the future that you can’t seem to move forward? Or maybe you can’t let go of something someone said to you, and the more you think about it, the worse you feel about yourself.
This constant cycle of negative thinking is called rumination. It could be commonly confused, and even dismissed as feelings of worry. But ruminating and worrying are different because a ruminator not only worries about her problems, she worries about all her feelings about her problems, and is not able to develop strategies to solve her problems.
Filed under: Lifestyle & Behaviors, Stress, Women | Comments Off
Posted on August 10th, 2010 by drbourdeau
A recent blog post from a pediatrician, which was also mentioned on the New York Times’ “Motherlode” blog, addressed the question“What do I do if my chubby kids say they are hungry?” Dr. Meeker raised some valid points in her post—what to do about your child eating too much food and why it’s important to set limits on screen time and provide easy access to healthy foods, among other things.
But Dr. Meeker may have provided some misguided recommendations when suggesting how to talk to children about their feelings of hunger. How we talk to our kids about hunger and help them understand it is not as simple as one may think. In fact, more harm than good might happen when people charge in and take total control over a child’s hunger without considering the child’s feelings, self-esteem or how the child thinks of herself.
Filed under: Children, Lifestyle & Behaviors, Parenting, Weight Issues | 6 Comments »
