Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary shakes the nation

Like so many Americans I went to sleep last night with a broken heart and today I woke up still crying for all the innocent lives lost yesterday. On Monday there will be 20 empty seats in the classrooms and 8 school administrators are also counted among the lost. As a parent you think about your own children and how you put them on the school bus with an expectation that they would return unharmed. So we are left with the question how do you prepare for evil? Sure we are now being told that the shooter had a history of mental illness, but he might have been but he access to a killing machine and he methodically stole the lives of children and changed the lives of everyone connected to this tragedy. Is gun control the answer? In this case his mother bought the guns legally. The irony is she bought the gun that was used to kill her by her own son. This is the kind of story that affects everyone. It hurts. The children that died yesterday were still young enough to believe in Santa Claus and there parents probably had the toys on their wish list hidden throughout their homes, in anticipation of the holidays, but sadly this Christmas will be so very different. We are left to ask what can we do? Today we can keep the families of the victims in our prayers and we must do something to stop this kind of thing from happening again, and that means gun control.

You hire a nanny, and she kills your children…what’s a Mom to do?

A NY mother, Marina Krim hired a nanny. She and her husband spent time with this woman during the hiring process. She seemed like the perfect fit, but then she did the unthinkable. She stabbed two of their children to death and then attempted to kill herself. This is the kind of crime that makes all parents cringe. You never know what lurks in the hearts of men. The parents did nothing wrong. In fact they did everything right and still and this happened to them. Fortunately this is a horrific tragedy it is not the norm. Parents have to work and other people look out for your kids while you work. You’ve got to simply pray they are sane. share your thoughts.

http://t.news.msn.com/us/kids-stabbed-dead-in-nyc-home-nanny-knife-nearby

My Week of Speaking “Kid” or Know Your Audience

When is the last time you talked to a kid? If you have children 10 and under this does not apply to you. I’m talking to those of you with children that are teens, in their twenties and older. Last week I worked at our churches summer camp and I got the opportunity to have conversations with kids. It is something invigorating about being surrounded with people who take joy in ice cream sprinkles. Children will share stories with all the details, and I mean all the details they have no irony in their game just pure honesty. The interesting thing is that when you speak only to adults you speak “adult”, but you do not realize it until you are talking to children. I was working with children that were between 3 and 6. We were doing and art project and after it was completed I asked each of the children to bring up their design and share it with the class. As they came up I said now her design is this or his design is that. We actually shared all 25 designs with the class. I felt satisfied they did the project and they understood the project, but at the end of the project one little girl held up her hand to ask a question. She asked “what does the word design mean?” I thought for a moment and used the age appropriate word “picture”. I shared this story with some friends who all cracked up. The moral of the story is you are not effectively communicating if the audience does not understand you. I admire the little girl that asked for clarity and from that point on I caught myself when I would revert to adultspeak and use kid speak when appropriate, and I must say I enjoyed my time in the truly honest world of “kids”.

Crawling Helmets? Have we lost our minds?

This photo stopped me. Do we really need a crawling helmet? When you learned to ride a bike did you wear a helmet? Do you remember when you did not have to wear a seat belt in a car? Don’t get me wrong I am not fighting progress or safety, but really? Are we going too far in our effort to protect that we are actually taking the joy out of living? Read the linked article and share your thoughts.

http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/13/11060105-does-your-high-speed-crawler-need-a-helmet?lite

Florida Dad forces son to wear a sign due to bad grades…does the punishment fit the crime?

Michael Bell Jr. received 3 Fs on his latest report card. His father Michael Bell Sr. forced his son to wear a sign that stated he had received 3Fs and stand at a busy intersection with that information on the sign. Bell Sr. says he is trying to keep his son from becoming a statistic. What do you think about the punishment did the father go too far?

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/failing-student-wears-sign-as-punishment-15901527

200 pound 3rd grader removed from the home…did the government over reach?

A child in 3rd grade is eight years old. A Cleveland 3rd grader has been removed from his home because of his obesity. He weighed 200 which is more than double the size of a typical 8 year old. He is the first child to be removed from his home in Ohio for a weight related issue. His mother’s lawyer is saying this is a case of government over reach. Read the linked article and tell me what you think.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/27/9050071-ohio-puts-200-pound-third-grader-in-foster-care

Mike McQueary Was A Grown Man When He Saw the Assault…He should have stopped it

The Penn State story is about death. The death of innocence and the death of a football program. Sure Penn State will keep playing games and probably continue to be a contender, but it will never be the same. When they played over the weekend the decision was made to put Mike McQueary on indefinate adminstrative leave. He is the burly, 28 year old man at the time that witnessed Sandusky brutally attacking the 10 year old boy and he did nothing to stop him. I read the following link on The Daily Beast and some in the close knit community are saying McQueary’s inability to stop him stemmed from the fact that Sandusky was not some “random” guy, he was like family. Really, so if you saw a family member doing this to a child it is accepatable not to intervene. It has been so interesting to watch grown men cry over the lost of a program, the lost of a coach, but the big story here is about lost, but it is the lost of innocence and that has nothing to do with the team or Coach Paterno. Read the link and please not there is profanity in the linked article.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/11/the-guy-who-actually-saw-it-ctd.html

Pageant Mom Calls her son a “diva” is this a problem?

Toddlers and Tiaras is a popular show on the The Learning Channel. Young girls strut their stuff in the girls pageant world. What struck me about this clip is that a little boy is yearning to be a part of this world and his mother seems perfectly fine with it. In fact she refers to him as her little diva. Watch the clip and tell me what you think. http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/toddlers-tiaras-better-than-the-girls.html#mkcpgn=snag1

Is MTV Skins Kiddie Porn?

MTV is known for pushing the envelope. Jersey Shore showcases the antics of unruly wild young people, but they are adults. MTV Skins is a scripted show that showcases the antics of kids. Some of the actors are underage and MTV is taking the heat for showing children in sexually explicit scenarios.  Some sponsors like Taco Bell have pulled their advertising from the show. The show starts with a parental warning, but is this enough? Tell me what you think.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2011/01/20/could-mtvs-skins-be-considered-child-pornography/?a_dgi=aolshare_email

Is the Tiger Mom Wrong?

The past few days I have watched pundits debate the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom by Amy Chua. Chua has been both praised and criticized for the parenting tactics she used on her two children. Some of her rules include the following: (1) schoolwork always comes first; (2) an A-minus is a bad grade; (3) your children must be two years ahead of their classmates in math; (4) you must never compliment your children in public; (5) if your child ever disagrees with a teacher or coach, you must always take the side of the teacher or coach; (6) the only activities your children should be permitted to do are those in which they can eventually win a medal; and (7) that medal must be gold. She also reveals in the book that she has called her children “garbage”, but in spite of this I admire the fact that she refused to heap false praise on her children. As parents so many of us have praised mediocre to the point where children can not even recognize excellence. Tell me what you think about the Tiger Mom’s rules.