Adults Face Fears about CyberBullying

Jennifer Pittman wrote an article in The Santa Cruz Sentinental about adults coming face to face with the issue of teen cyberbullying.

She writes:

SANTA CRUZ -- Adults who ignore the unfamiliar and sometimes daunting world of the Internet often fail to offer children and youth much needed guidance about safe and appropriate online activities, according to experts who spoke Friday at the 12th annual Jon Nadherny/Calciano Memorial Youth Symposium.

"Kids are growing up inside the Internet," said Frank Farley, professor at Temple University and former president of the American Psychological Association.

Farley, a keynote speaker for "Cyberpsychology: The Internet and Youth in the New Millennium," held at the Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz, calls himself "a digital immigrant" who struggles to understand the Internet world of his own two teens.

"They're not consumers of it; they live there," Farley said.

Read entire article

Abuse Among Teens

The Houston Chronicle wrote a timely article about abuse among teens in our society.

Abuse is widely reported so teens are constantly hearing about abuse among famous teen actors.

The article begins:

Celebrity watchers were astounded when baby-faced, 19-year-old pop star Chris Brown was arrested last month — for beating and threatening his equally photogenic and appealing girlfriend, the 20-year-old, Grammy-winning Rihanna.

The couple was so young, seemed so madly in love. This ugly thing hardly seemed possible.

But youth, what seems to be love and a veneer of normalcy actually are typical characteristics of much relationship violence. Parents need to grab this chance to discuss such abuse with their own teens. Read more.

Teen Suicide

Adults sometimes feel helpless when dealing with suicide. But they do not need to. A recent editorial explains what adults/parents can do.

Our view: Assuring a troubled young person's future can be as simple as asking questions and listening, which may help them shun suicide.

For adults, it's difficult to understand why a young person would kill himself or herself. We know that nothing could be that bad.

It appears there's a lot we don't know or understand about the mental workings of young people, and this is a good time to learn, whether or not you have a child.

Everyone and anyone can be the wall preventing a death. It's not that hard. It's about asking questions and listening, being positive and calling for help.

Read More

Valentine's Day Replacement for Teens

Many teens get wrapped up in the emotions that surround Valentine's Day. Some may make poor choices due to their "feelings" of love toward another.

Hormones are raging, the media is pouring on the love message, and peers may be pressuring teens to "go all the way" to show love.

A different kind of Valentine's Day celebration was celebrated in Ohio as reported from Christian Today:

Valentine’s Day is usually associated with red roses and crummy dates but for some teens in the U.S. this could not have been further from their reality. These teens opted instead to celebrate Valentine’s Day not by celebrating their love for another person but for God.

As couples around the world were busy dining in restaurants in ode to one another’s love, an increasing number of teens across North America were joining in celebrating the love of God as part of a new Valentine’s Day replacement, the “Day of Purity”.

Discussing strong emotions with teens is vitally important. They need to know that their feelings are not strange or abnormal, but they must learn to control them.

Honest, open discussions will help teens feel safe to share when these strong feelings emerge.

Finding new ways to celebrate "old traditions" will also help teens through some of the most difficult emotional times.

Teens Targeted for Identity Theft

If teens didn't have enough going on around them, now they are having to deal with identity theft.

Some teens must deal with strangers who steal their identity but, more often than not, more teens are facing identity theft from their own parents.

Parents get into financial difficulties and use their teens' social security number to open up alternate means of credit.

The Dallas Morning News reported:

A Houston student in one of Nevels' classes discovered her mother had stolen her identity when she was denied credit for a laptop for college.

"She said she'll just deal with it later," Nevels said. "She didn't want to deal with the conflict that she would have with her mother, who doesn't know that she knows."

Foley said her center has been getting "a lot of calls" on child identity theft," adding: "We're getting them from older teens, college-age students and from parents that someone in the immediate family is stealing a child's identity."

The fears of young victims are very real if they report the crime, Foley said.

Foley said she knows of three victims of identity theft by their parents who waited until they turned 18 to move out and report the crime to the police.

"They were afraid of the physical repercussions because they were still in the house," she said.

Young people need to learn early what identity theft is, Foley said.

"We need to start educating kids at the middle school and high school level about what is identity theft and that it's not right for somebody other than you to be using your Social Security number," she said.

The impact on young people can be far-reaching.

Teens face all kinds of issues from "without". Now they are having to face them from "within".

Teens' Decisions Based on Feelings

Often times teens do not realize how one mistake can impact their lives.

Their decisions are made based on how they feel at the moment.

Society teaches teens to feel and act instead of taking time to think about what their actions may do. Living this way causes many regrets and pain.

Lia McCord's story , from Houston, TX, is one example of how one mistake can alter life. Her dramatic story of one small decision detours her life for over four years in a Bangladesh prison.

Teaching teens to stop and think before acting may save them years of pain.

The Top Ten

David Letterman is known for his "Top Ten" list. The list is usually a synopsis of any given topic, in terms only a comedian could deliver.

While vacationing with friends one year we decided to make a Top Ten list of experiences over the course of the week. We made it together and still laugh about it today, and that was 8 years ago.

The difference between the two? David's list is geared toward everyone, but our list was personal. We chose things that were funny or important to us. If someone else were to read them, they would not understand all of them, nor would they appreciate their importance.

Having a Top Ten List for your family is a great way to keep everyone on the same page, and your parenting intentional. It is exactly what Mary DeMuth challenged her readers to do...

Make a list of 10 things you want your children to know before they leave the nest. How can you parent today so they'll know these 10 things?

Take some time to sit down and think about what you want your teens to know before they leave home. Be intentional about the time you spend, the words you say, and the actions you show them each day.