This week’s family-related news included a program that helps teens and young adults cope more successfully with “adulting”, a touching photo essay around couples getting married downtown at the Courthouse, how adult addiction to mobile devices can negatively impact kids, celebrating “Loving” but remembering there is more work to do, a personal account of how race affects an interracial couple’s parenting style, how one mother rethought how to keep her husband’s memory alive for the children, the Supreme decision application of the concept of “equal protection” to immigrant parents, a look at the impact on children when parents talk differently to boys and girls, the key to why many unwed, biological fathers are not actively engaged with their children, and finally, how Alzheimer’s stole a grandfather’s joy.
Preparing ‘Emerging Adults’ for College and Beyond Alina Tegend, The New York Times, June 7, 2017 As part of the Launching Emerging Adults Program, Dr. Ginsberg works with teenagers and young adults on the lack of emotional and academic readiness and “adulting” skills, as well as on social anxiety — issues that can become more apparent in college and can lead to students’ lives unraveling.
Getting Married Where the Catering Is a Pretzel Vendor Photographs by Daniel Arnold, Interview by Joanna Nikas, Produced by Eve Lyons, June 9, 2017 Photographer Daniel Arnold spent the month of May camped outside the New York City’s Clerk’s Office, documenting couples getting married in irreverent, wild, untraditional — and sometimes very traditional — ways.
Children Whose Parents Spend Time on Mobile Devices Have More Behavior Issues Linda Searing,The Washington Post, June 10, 2017 This article addresses the following question: So much research is focused on the possible effects of technology on children. What about the effects on kids when parents scan text messages or check news or sports alerts on a cellphone constantly. If parents do this while interacting with their children, might it affect the children’s behavior?
Interracial Marriages Face Pushback 50 Years After Loving Hansi Lo Wang & Marisa Penaloza, NPR, June 12, 2017 On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously…striking down laws banning mixed-race marriages in sixteen states, including Virginia.The share of newlyweds in interracial marriages has grown sharply…While adults ages 65 and older and those with a high school diploma or less education are more likely to oppose having a close relative marrying someone of a different race, Americans overall are more open to the idea, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.
How My Interracial Marriage Changed the Way I See the World, and How I Parent Michelle Acker Perez, The Washington Post, June 12, 2017 June 12th is celebrated as “Loving Day,” a hallmark for civil rights and racial equality. “I want our kids to grow up seeing people, all people,” … “But in order for that to happen, it takes intentionality as parents. It means being open to honest conversations and willing to answer hard questions — like, “Why did that man ask if Daddy was the gardener?”
Losing a Father and Husband to AIDS, and Finding Him Again Maggie Kneip, The New York Times, June 13, 2017 My children and I went to dinner and talked afterward, about their father, and about how hard it’s been, for so long, to not talk about him, to deny his existence. In telling our story honestly, we have brought John back in three-dimensional, human terms. He happened, we happened, it happened.
High Court Strikes Down Law Favoring Unwed Mothers Over Unwed Fathers Nina Totenberg, NPR, June 13, 2017 U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a federal law based on what the justices called “stunning stereotypes” — among them that most men care little about their children born out of wedlock. Under the law, a child born abroad to an unwed American mother automatically becomes a U.S. citizen if the mother previously lived in the U.S. for a period of at least one year. In contrast, the child of an unwed father can’t become a U.S. citizen unless the father has lived in the U.S. for a continuous period of five years, two of them when he was over the age of 14.m Now, the Supreme Court has ruled that the different gender lines drawn by Congress violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the law.
Talking to Boys the Way We Talk to Girls Andrew Reiner, The New York Times, June 15, 2107 Researchers believe that discrepancies in fathers’ language may contribute to “the consistent findings that girls outperform boys in school achievement outcomes.” How can we change this?
Why Fathers Leave Their Children David Brooks,The New York Times, June 16, 2017 Millions of children and teenagers grow up without their biological father…The key weakness is not the father’s bond to the child; it’s the parents’ bond with each other.
Alzheimer’s Starts to Steal the Joy of Being a Grandfather Rebecca Hersher, NPR, June 17, 2017 His daughter, Colleen, is due to have a baby in November, and ever since he found out, Greg has been struggling with competing emotions. Eight years ago he was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
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