Monday, August 8, 2011
School is starting and you can already hear miss bossy boots clomping down the hallway with new orders for "her" team of room mothers.
Being a room mother is difficult enough without taking orders from other mothers. The moment your role as a room mother starts to feel like a popularity contest, ditch the ice cream socials and find your own niche in the classroom. If picking up cakes loaded with hydrogenated oils for classroom parties isn't your thing, there are a multitude of opportunities for you to be the room mother who stays above the fray. There are most certainly going to be circumstances when avoiding the bossy boots room mother is simply impossible, but you know why you're volunteering in the first place and it's up to you to keep the focus on the children. When you're told to bring napkins and paper cups to the "fall-fest" just do it and be glad your help is …
Monday, May 16, 2011
It's time to airbrush and retouch the entire window display instead of the just the models at Victoria's Secret.
Enough with the cheesy window displays at Victoria's Secret. I have yet to see anyone who feels comfortable walking by larger-than-life posters of underwear models that seem to mar the walkway like the dark shadow of a downtown peep show. I remember covering my son's eyes when he was 6-years-old every time we passed a Victoria's Secret shop. It was easier to block his view than it was to explain thongs and push-up bras. I truly wish for the sake of our community's family-friendly reputation, that Victoria's Secret would tone it down. I strongly doubt our sons and daughters need to be educated on "What is Sexy" as defined by Victoria's Secret. I wonder how moms and dads explain the displays to an inquisitive daughter. I doubt they offer …
Monday, May 9, 2011
Your kids can buy Lazy Cakes and synthetic marijuana over the counter. Find out out why these "treats" are so dangerous.
Cute little cake snacks aren't what they appear to be. Brownies laced with high concentrations of sleep inducing melatonin are available at Fred's Super Dollar in Jasper. Let's hope they don't make their way to Cumming. Known as Lazy Cakes, these melatonin-laced snacks are by no means as innocent as they sound. They are cleverly packaged, specifically marketed to young people and sold right at the checkout counter in most cases. I wonder how many unsuspecting teen drivers are popping these brownies into their mouths before getting behind the wheel of a car. Even more harmful are "spice" and "bath-salts" which are available to kids 18 and up at gas stations all over Forsyth County. Spice is the slang term for synthetic drugs sold in …
Monday, May 2, 2011
It appears our high school dress code got lost in the clothes hamper.
Parents, don't send your daughters to school with their cleavage as the main topic of study for the day. I'm all for the latest trends in everything from country chic to goth styles and I clearly remember some of my "finer" outfits from my high school days. But an evolution has brought shorts to new heights since those days and it isn't pretty. There is a high school dress code in place to guide those students who haven't quite mastered the art of dressing to impress instead of offend. On the occasions I have been in the midst of the frenzy of students getting out of high school after a long day, I'm always a bit disgusted by the short shorts, excessive cleavage, holy jeans and the low-rider pants that look like they are about to slip …
Monday, April 25, 2011
This week, we'll start with a hard look at the commonality of animal cruelty. But we'll also look at the bright side of how you and your kids can literally reach out to animals with a compassionate and educated point of view.
It's easy to find hundreds of heartbreaking stories about animal cruelty and neglect ranging from the Ohio teens who fatally beat a baby alpaca to Cumming's own recent headline about the man who is charged with animal cruelty. These incidents are incomprehensible to most of us, yet animal cruelty is common. Children and adults often forget that animals have real feelings and rely largely on human kindness in order to survive. People who are instilled with kindness coupled with an education on the behavioral instincts of animals are truly animals' best friends. "It's not uncommon to see children and teens hurting animals," says Deborah McLean, owner of McLean's Critters Petting Farms on Dr. Bramblett Rd. "In many cases, it's simply …
Monday, April 18, 2011
Some children grow up with a loving compassion for animals. Others grow up with an indifference that easily teeters on malice. Expose your kids to the area's best hands-on experiences with animals to instill compassion for all living creatures.
Kid's aren't always born with compassion for animals. It's often a learned behavior parents, peers and society instills. We've all heard and read about many of the atrocities committed against animals in every county in the nation, including our own. But rather than post links to these heartbreaking tales that have taken place at the hands of cruel humans, I am going to give you a two-part series on some of the most exciting ways you can instill your children with respect and kindness toward all creatures. Land and sea aren't just playgrounds for people. This week's focus takes a look at venues designed for human interaction with life under water. From these interactions, many children learn how to respect and take responsibility for the …
Monday, April 4, 2011
Road trips are the way to go, no matter where you wind up.
Ahhh spring break… Time to get away from it all. But several years ago, I learned there’s more than one way to take a road trip. It was the spring I decided to slow down and stay home for a change. On that first day of the break, my son and I went out to lunch in Roswell, just the two of us. It was a beautiful afternoon so we ate outside. Though I knew it was only lunch, I wanted it to last all day. I think I was a little afraid that our time together just might not be exciting enough for him any more since he was “growing up.” Then it hit me; I’d been going so fast through his days of school, tests, sports and friends that the few minutes we had together during the week were stolen between dinner and bedtime. I watched him eating his …
Monday, March 28, 2011
Supplying condoms, pills and the HPV vaccine for your teen amounts to a message of approval for early onset "sexheimers."
The premise of birth control and STD vaccines is to allow for sex without pregnancy or disease. The key word here is allow, and teens process its meaning quickly and often decipher it as sex without consequences. However, teens are not emotionally equipped to withstand the psychological effects of sex. They are not mature enough to fully understand the implications of sexual intimacy, but still, many parents are willing to supply them with everything they need for the "go-ahead" under the assumption that it's safe. Condoms break, there is no cure for herpes or AIDS and the birth control pill boasts a plethora of side-effects and risks other than merely preventing pregnancy. HPV vaccines recommended for girls as young as nine are a tacit …
Monday, March 21, 2011
More gay couples are adopting children, maintaining a happy family-life and setting an example for excellent parenting.
Parenting is a privilege, not a right. Most U.S. states with the exception of Mississippi, Florida, (though it's changing) and several "ambiguous" states seem to realize gay couples, just like heterosexual couples, can raise well-adjusted children. On the other hand, there's a little country called China that legally denies gay couples the opportunity to adopt a child. So, let me get this straight. There are people out there who actually think it's better to have children raised in state custody or tossed into dumpsters on the outskirts of Beijing rather than expand the adoption eligibility pool to include homosexual couples. Despite controversy here in the U.S. and abroad, gay couples are adopting children and I can't comprehend why …
Monday, March 14, 2011
Get the skinny (or should we say the fatty?) on trans fats and why they are so unhealthy.
Seriously, I’d like to know how much longer the American food supply is going to be infested with hydrogenated oils. I’d also like to know why our government allows for product labels to claim “No trans fats!” when the ingredient information on the back of the package tells a different story in the form of hydrogenated cottonseed, soybean and palm oils. Denmark has banned the use of hydrogenated oils to a very large degree, California followed suit along with New York and parts of Maryland, but what about America as a whole? Food is supposed to sustain and enhance human life, not slowly destroy it. Hydrogenated oils clog heart arteries. It’s common knowledge, yet people continue to buy it and eat it every day. Hydrogenated oils are …
Kristen Berry
12:20 pm on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Glad you're reading... Thanks Marc! more ›