Should Hillary Clinton be our next President?

Should Obama? Should Romney? Should McCain Should Huckabee?

What do you think? Do you know what you think? Do you recognize the names?

As parents it is our responsibility to know who we are electing and what they stand for. Know what issues are important to you, to your family, and to the country. Don't just listen to TV, radio talk shows, or read print to find out what you should believe.

Too many people in this country will vote for a candidate because:

• of gender (for or against),
• of race (for or against),
• of religious persuasion (for or against), or
• because someone else said they should.

None of these reasons are good enough to use your sacred privilege to cast a secret ballot on a single individual. Where do you personally stand on national security, illegal immigration, the tax code, the trade deficit, the housing 'crisis', the environment. These are all vital issues to be addressed in the next four years.

Pay attention to how these candidates have stood on these issues for the past decade, not just on what they are saying in a campaign speech. Or, worse yet, don't let someone else tell you what these candidates stand for. Check it out your self. Make it a family project.

Use this as a chance to get closer to your children and teach them how to vote and how to vote responsibly. It is disgusting to me that in the FL primary yesterday everyone was so excited about the fact that in some precincts almost 40% of the eligible voters turned out to vote.

When I was in school 40% was not a passing grade! Where in God's name are the other 60%? Be a good citizen and a good parent. Vote for the candidate who most fits your values. Your children's futures are dependent on what we do as voters. Teach your children how to compare candidates and vote intelligently.

On the other hand, if you are not an informed voter, please stay home.

Cyber Bullying--a deadly threat to our children!

My son was an early casualty and his death an early warning to our society that we’d better pay close attention to how our children use technology. We need to study this new societal problem with a sense of urgency and great diligence. We must also be swift and deliberate in our law making and social policy development when it comes to protecting our youth from the misuse of technology against them and amongst them.
John Halligan, Ryan’s Dad (http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/); from the foreword for the book, Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age by Robin Kowalkski, Ph.D, Susan Limber, Ph.D, and Patti Agatston, Ph.D (http://www.cyberbullyhelp.com/)


Technology is a wonderful thing. The advancements just in my life time have been incredible. Think about my grandmother who was born in the late 1800’s and lived to see man walk on the moon. What will our children see? What will they do? There are so many good things in store for them.

However, as with anything, technology has its down sides. Parents, you must be diligent in keeping up with the technology our children are using. Instilling good values is paramount during this age when an immature child can send a negative message about someone they are mad at to the entire world. That immaturity does not allow him to understand the ramifications of what he has done.

She does not realize that what she has done could change the course of the other person’s life. In my day, a small rumor may have been spread about someone but it did not go very far. It stayed in a select group and could be disproved. Such is not the case nowadays.

And what if your child is the victim? How do you react? How do you help?

All I can say is that we need to go back to the Golden Rule and teach our children how to live a life in which they understand and practice right from wrong. Teach them appropriate ways to vent frustrations and handle disputes. Know what is happening in your child's life online--there should be no sites they go to that you are locked out of. You need, more than any time in history to have good communication with your kids. Laws are needed that protect us but do not intrude on individual rights.

It is not a time to step back and let someone else raise your kids! Be involved. I pray none of you ever have to go through what Mr. Halligan had to endure.

Prostitots and Other Thoughts about Kids Clothes

My guest on Parents Rule! (www.radiosandysprings.com Thurs. 2-3 pm EST) this week is Celia Rivenbark (www.celiarivenbark.com) who has written a book entitled Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like a Skank. This has made me do some thinking about this particular phenomenon.

Do you suppose that these parents are all blind? Do they not notice that their precious 8-year old girl is leaving the house wearing a top with suggestive wording on it? According to Celia, there is a term for babies who dress this way--prostitots. Is that how you want your child to think of herself?

Do they not see their teen going out among the opposite sex with clothing on that leaves nothing to the imagination. I truly believe, but have not tested the theory, that these girls can have sex without actually removing any piece of this clothing. Are these same parents going to be surprised when their children are pregnant, have herpes, or just simply found out to be having sex? When they want to know what happened, they will need to take a trip to Lookinthemirrorville.

Frankly I am tired of looking at fat girls in too-tight jeans with lots of jiggly fat hanging out from the under the short midriff shirt. Does anyone really think this looks good? Do they look in the mirror and say, "Oh boy, I gained more weight since yesterday and that belly fat is jiggling better than ever!" My mom would have taken one look at me if I had dressed like that and given me lectures on the following subjects:

• Proper attire for a young lady
• Nutrition and benefits of the lack of sweets in my diet
• What teenage boys are interested in
• Why I would never find a decent husband
• What the neighbors would think
• How I had disappointed my father, or the subtitle, How will we ever show our faces in town again if you go out of this house dressed like that

It would be way too late to meet my friends by the time she would have finished--which, actually, would have been her goal.

Are we so afraid of disciplining our kids that we cannot say no to them? Are they just too busy to care how the kids look? Or are they just to apathetic to argue? In any case, parents need to wake up and be the parents they are intended to be.

We are not supposed to our kids friends. They have plenty of friends! Your children need you to set some limits and uphold consequences for violating those limits. In time, as your child becomes an adult, you will become more friend than parent and that is a wonderful stage. I love that my kids are my best friends. But while they are young, you can be loving and friendly. However you must be the parent.

I refuse to apologize...

to my children if I want to spend time with you. I refuse to apologize for having my feelings hurt when I am not included in something in your life. Or for occasionally (really, you have to admit I am pretty good about this) giving you an opinion about something you said or did that you neither requested or appreciated.

Why do I refuse to apologize? Because I have earned the right to do those things and be forgiven. I have earned the right by:

• Walking the halls all night with a col icy baby
• Using those nasty cloth diapers because you were allergic to disposables and having to wash them out in the toilet before putting them in the diaper pail
• All the times I hemorrhaged from the finger sticks I got from diaper pins
• Crying and feeling like I failed you every time I had to paddle your padded behinds--here I thought I was sending you to your room to think about what you did wrong and to feel bad. Later I find out it was only a great chance for you to pad your underwear.
• Hours in the car hauling your butts from here to yon; not to mention bringing the friends along
• More hours listening to a 3 year old say "guess what?" 600 times a day.
• Letting you live when you were 3 and flipped me off
• Listening to three toddlers squeal "MINE!!!!" about 500 times a day for approximately 6 years
• The times I had to resort to yelling that you will not be allowed touch each other again in your whole lives if you whine "he touched me" one more time today in the car
• Putting out the fire you started in the backyard
• Digging up, cleaning up, and giving new life to all the GI Joe figurines that "died in battle and had to be buried."

Do I need to go on? This is only a partial list of the reasons why you need to give a break sometimes. Just shake your head and remind your self that, yes, I am a crazy old woman. Just remember it is you who made me that way.