In the last week I learned of two friends whose children, both age 16, have had car accidents.  In both cases the teens were at fault and were luckily unhurt, but shaken up.  The boy totalled his father's car and the girl did $11,000 to her car!! 

I am already concerned about when my son gets his license and he's only 13 years old!  There are so many distractions....cell phones, music, texting, showing off, acting cool....it's just endless! 

I recently saw an ad in the paper about the Allstate Insurance Company's Teen Driving Contract.  It discusses expectations and consequences and I think it's fabulous.  I want to share it so we as parents can start a dialogue with our teens who are already drivers or will become drivers.    Check it out and tell me what you think. 

http://www.allstateteendriver.com/contract

In this day and age, our children spend quite a bit of time online (just as we all seem to). Socializing seems to be the biggest draw but is it having positive effects on our kids? Sure, it's "what they do" but it appears to add a whole new dynamic to the popularity contest.

My daughter showed me a site she has been visiting and I was really impressed with it's overall theme. They have these "shows" where they talk about music, fashion, movies, and advice. The advice show was really interesting. They take questions from teens and answer them live. Some were serious questions, but they handled them all from a good place.

Maybe a site like this can be a positive influence for our kids in a time when everthing that is being shoved down their throats by the huge money making machines just seems to perpetuate the negative side of things. Their role models stink, the message in the hip hop music they listen to is not positive for the most part...

Take a look and see for yourself. I admire what they are doing and tell my friends to send their kids there.

www.teenfaze.com

Cheers!

I have watched with sadness the story about Megan Meier in  the news recently.  Megan was a 13 year old girl who had battled ADD, depression and weight issues so imagine her happiness when she was shown some attention by a boy on MySpace.  Her mom cautioned her not to get too excited or too involved with this boy, but Megan told her mom she just didn't understand.  How often as parents do we hear those words? 

The supposed boy broke up with her and then proceeded to vilify her on the internet site.  Megan was so devastated that she took her own life about a year ago. 

I cannot imagine what her parents are going through.  But imagine their shock when they found out the cyber-bullying was coming from a computer right down the road from their home.  Apparently a mom from her neighborhood created the boy who was interested in Megan.  Why?  That I am not sure about...something about Megan saying something about the perpetrator's daughter.  As my kids say, "WHATEVER"! 

I cannot imagine why this woman would resort to this cyber-bullying?  What a horrid thing to do to a child.  But how can we expect our children not to behave this way, if we have parents doing so? 

It's very hard to have your daughter come home from school and say she'd had a bad day because of some mean comment someone said about her.  I have been there...been the mom of the daughter and the daughter (more than a few years ago).  I try to reassure my daughter that the comment is inaccurate, mean spirited and said to make the girl feel better about herself by knocking down my daughter.   I do remember the intense need to fit in when I was a 12 year old  girl myself. 

Imagine though that your daughter is being bullied in the privacy of her home through her computer or cell phone.  Words typed or texted cannot ever be taken back.  They are very painful and I can only imagine Megan's desperation when she hung herself. 

We all must educate our tweens and teens about the ramifications of their words, whether spoken or typed.