With the boys being in that dreadful age zone of teen-enstein (that’s a cross between teenager and Frankenstein) I feel like I’ve talked more in the last week than I ever did during those “tween” years.
Most recently I’ve been trying so hard to explain to the kids that a joke is NOT good if it’s at the expense of someone else. I have encouraged them to joke all they want if the person being offered up as humors sacrificial lamb is their own self.
Why is it that this particular lesson is nearly impossible to sink in?
I’ve also tried to …read more

The Associated Press recently reported on an Eighteen-year-old Wisconsin high school student Anthony Stancl who created a Facebook profile to pretend to be a teenage girl. Under this guise, over the course of nearly two years, he used the fictitious account to convince more than 30 of his male classmates to send in nude photos or videos of themselves.
Once the videos and photos were in Stancl’s possession, he threatened to put the photos or videos on the Internet unless they engaged in sexual acts with him. At least seven of them have said they were coerced into sex acts, …read more

With the twins looking at turning 16 in a little over a month, the topic of driver education, driver license and cars has taken it’s position front and center of 99% of our family discussions.
Having three teenage boys – one year apart, I’m frightened to even ask what insurance is going to run on three teens.
I’ve heard of parents buying a junkie old car to insure their kids with while I’ve listened to others talk about how much their insurance went up as the result of adding the teen to their existing policy.
I tend to be a person who …read more

A report published this month by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) indicates that teen pregnancy rates are rising. Significant increases are being reported in the teen pregnancy rate in 26 states in 2006, ending a 15 year decline in teen pregnancy statistics.
Regionally, the northeast has the lowest while the south and southwest herald the highest rates. The new data shows the greatest increases in teen pregnancy rates in Alaska, Mississippi, Montana, Hawaii, and Nevada.
A number of factors are being cited as influencing the rise including a rise in highly publicized teen pregnancies, abstinence-only programs, and a disproportionate …read more

Yet another reason I’m all for a ban on texting while driving and even more – on the devices that block a person’s ability to text while driving.
This particular accident occurred awfully close to home:
Sarah L. Woodruff, 20, Anderson, died Sunday afternoon after her vehicle went into the interstate’s median and rolled as many as six times before it came to rest on its roof. Woodruff was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from her car.
Investigators said the victim’s cell phone showed she was receiving text messages within three minutes of the first report of the accident at …read more

Religion may be the key factor to keep teens in the U.S. abstaining from sexual intercourse until they are older.
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which looked data gathered from nearly 1,000 teens.
It was found that teens who took the virginity pledge varied little from from teens who did not when it came to their actually waiting to have intercourse.
Religion, on the other hand provided a completely different story by revealing teens who were religious waited until the average age of 21 to have intercourse, compared to 17 for those who were not religious.
Having personally been brought up with …read more

On Straight Talk – a woman writes in with concerns over her boyfriend who wants to permit his son’s to throw an overnight party complete with alcohol. The boyfriend rationalizes his position in that he’d be providing a safe place to drink. To the contrary, the boyfriend believes if the kids don’t have a safe place they may end up driving while drunk, over-drink or participate in other harmful activities.
In this segment, teens are then allowed to sound off. Each one seems to heavily support the boyfriends position and confirm every parents worst nightmare in that teens will drink …read more

Since moving into the new house a couple of weeks ago, I’ve had the great pleasure of enjoying a bathroom all to myself.
I love that the seat is always down – the tub is always clean and with the rules I have in place, the boys don’t want to go near it.
Am I being too demanding to ask that IF they wish to take a bath in my bathroom (they only have a shower) that they rinse the tub and wipe it out?
My logic here is that by doing this, it cuts WAY down on the cleanings I must …read more

The guys in my family – which consists of every other human type being in my household besides me – just doesn’t get the whole “mother’s intuition” thing.
I’ve done a great deal of thinking on this lately and I’m not sure we can call it psychic intuitiveness or if it’s just that mother’s seem to be SO darned in tune with their children’s behavior patterns that the slightest variation in their moods or actions send up a noticeable flag.
All I know is when my kids are up to no good, I know it!
When my kids are faking being sick or …read more