This week’s family-related news coverage included insights on why teens have to be taught to have healthy, loving relationships, a look at the new work environment — a space for the little ones included, a touching story on how a five-year-old turns to nativity figurines to help her cope with her parents’ divorce, up-to-the minute advice on screen time and kids, a clarion call for support of mothers of tweens, an in-depth look at a successful West Virginia school model that includes a mentorship program and a positive partnership with law enforcement, an inspirational interview of a school principal in Brooklyn who explains: to truly support a child, we must understand their life experience. Six Ways Parents and Schools Can Teach Teens About Love Phyllis L. Fagell, The Washington Post, December 22, 2016 If we want our kids to enjoy the full extent of a loving relationship, caring adults need to teach them how to take those first giddy, tentative steps toward love and how to proceed from there.
Co-Working Spaces Add a Perk for Parents: Child Care Ronda Kaysen, The New York Times, December 23, 2016 Working parents need a quiet place to focus, and they need child care. But freelancers have unpredictable schedules and incomes, making a full-time nanny or day care often too expensive, within hours that are too inflexible. One solution may be co-working spaces with a child care option.
Working Through Divorce with Mary and Joseph Carol Weis, The New York Times, December 23, 2106 The author’s daughter was five years old when her parent’s separated. The little girl found a healthy way to cope by turning to figurines to play out the angst in our household.
Screen Time Reality Check — For Kids and Parents Eric Westervelt, NPR December 26, 2016 Advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics and others in the education world emphasize parent participation in the digital lives of children — to help kids tap into what’s fun and creative, and not just use a device as a quick babysitter. The message is to try to model moderation, set some house rules and talk about device use with your kids.
We Are Sending Kids the Wrong Message About Adulthood. Here’s What Needs to Change Judy Mollen Walters, The Washington Post, December 27, 2016 The author stresses that being an adult is good. It is not bad to set goals as a young person and then go after them, no matter how hard it may seem to reach them. The author implores, let’s keep teaching our kids that these are good things and very importantly, let’s believe it ourselves.
Being Mom to a Middle Schooler Can Be the Toughest Gig of All Juli Fraga, NPR, December 29, 2016 A recent study published in Developmental Psychology finds that maternal depression is actually most common among mothers of middle school children as they catapult into the tween years. During this period of transition, women can feel lonely, empty and dissatisfied with their mothering roles. Mothers raising tweens still need the same validation and support that they once had when they embarked on their parenting journeys, however the resources are few.
This Inner City School is a Bridge to Empowerment for Children of Color NPR Video Interview, December 28, 2016 In one of the poorest and most violent neighborhoods in Brooklyn, in one of the most segregated school systems in the country, principal Nadia Lopez, is trying to help kids defy the odds. Lopez talks to special correspondent Charlene Hunter-Gault about how the she’s adopted teaching methods and curricula with an understanding of where the students come from and what they need to succeed. There is a movement to help avoid “generational genocide”, by understanding the challenges that children face outside of school. The principal believes that by “pouring in the positive” the kids can thrive.
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